Liontamer

The instruments are flat though half-decent, the vox in the back didn't work, and the percussion was weak. Please do more then just play the Zelda theme for 2 loops with some strings. A Zelda theme cover. Great. Not a chance. NO

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/metroid2.zip - GBS Track 3 I actually thought everything was pretty solid. Some of the samples could be better, but even for more of a cover arrangement I thought this was really good. I dunno why Vig thought it sounded bare. I was disappointed that the interesting turns this mix took were just from the GBS, but I thought the instrumentation was good and the sounds generally worked well together. Enough changes were present throughout where there was notable development, and a lot of stuff was added here. One particular thing: the layering of melodies from 2:49 to 3:03 didn't click at all. I had to listen to both the source material and the submission a lot to compare the two, and this is actually a fairly similar situation to the vote we had on CT "Rhodes to the Past". However, I think there's a lot more going on with this one than Fatty Acid's mix, IMO. I don't see how Vig could YES "Rhodes" and then NO this one. YES

You could apply some of the negative criticism given to "The Final Summoning" on this mix as well. There's a difference between enhancing the original with an approach like this, and then simply combining original composition with the NES stuff. The music of the first 2:45 had practically nothing to do with Metroid (game sounds notwithstanding) and that's over half the track. 4:32-5:02 had the exact same problem as the intro. Once things changed at 2:45, I felt what Sly added was a lot more satisfactory and interpretive. It wasn't enough at all though. Just because the wholly-original trance work added underneath the NES track fit like a glove doesn't mean that this is enough to make it here. Frankly, I don't even believe that the music fit as well as Vig says. Find a creative way to lop off the first half of this, create a shorter intro with some actual arrangement, and resubmit. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - "People of the Far North" A little while back I heard an nearly complete WIP of one of bLiNd's remixes for Project Majestic Mix Trance, "White Skies," and that got me very familiar with the source material. Checking the "People of the Far North" PSF, this is the same tempo and the instrumentation is practically the same. Verbatim = lame, and the additions here weren't much. Some of them were off-key with the melody. I stopped it at 3:14. I'm not gonna bother. I don't even care what the second half is. NO OVERRIDE

Yeah, I agree, this isn't too bad. The horns are weak though with unrealistic attacks, the synth guitar is disappointing since it has potential, and I'd love to hear a little bit more going on with the percussion. The groove isn't too bad. More rearrangement please. I've heard the original hundreds of times and this doesn't do much to it. NO

Wasn't really feeling some of the bubblier stuff at 1:46 (especially since the flute didn't sound good) with the percussion you had. It didn't really work well in tandem. And I realize that the quick shot of strings at 2:01 wasn't supposed to sound real, but it was still pretty bad. But that's just the small stuff. Came across as kind of scattershot, but the ideas here were changing enough where I wasn't just bored. Enough people have used the in-game sound effects as beats & interludes that it's become kind of a cliche idea, but ultimately I liked how Walnut used them. By 2:10 though, this was kind of treading water on the development side. Though it was cluttered, I'm not sure why there weren't any fuller areas like 2:45-2:57 earlier in the mix. There's lots of stuff going on here, but it's actually pretty bland once I've listened to this 15 times. Can't really put my finger on what this needs, but I just don't see this as being over the line. Someone's gonna be able to articulate that better than I can. I could see this possibly getting some YESs. Lots of effort here. Enough that I wouldn't mind hearing this resubmitted. NO

1 minute through and there's no activity, with everything at unacceptably low levels. Production is awful in that NOTHING is positioned correctly. The beats in the foreground should be in the background. Everything even remotely melodic should be in the foreground. This would sound incredibly better if Spiker literally did just that. I don't know how this is on the arrangement side, but it doesn't particularly matter here. Nice/promising ideas here for a laid back track with lots of percussion work, but you gotta rethink the approach here. NO

There's really not much for me to say on this one, because I can't offer much advice. The rearrangement is already excellent. It's just that the delivery is incredibly flat to me. The intensity of the piece never changes much from section to section. Small point: at 3:22 when the strings made their resolution, you really here one last MIDI string exposed and it doesn't sound good. There's so much reverb that for the first 1:34, a lot of supporting elements, primarily a horn, are in the back and washed out. At 2:15, you hear more things happening once the drums get going, but in effect none of the dynamics changed. I'd hope there's a way to reanalyze the mastering to keep the style here of letting the melodic notes flow smoothly from one to the next while allowing everything here to sound more grandiose and natural like it's obviously supposed to. NO

Hahahaha. C'mon, it's not as seizure-inducing as Vig says. Ryu7x's Megaman 8 mix "Synthetic Future" (which I loved) had essentially the same formula as this. Crazy ZANY beats with the original on top. This has a lot more rearrangement going on than that mix, but man, was this ever...yeah. It's not even half-bad (Prot: That's it! You're off the panel!). Kinda dips down into 3/4ths-bad territory with all that "ICE CAAAVE! CAN YOU ESCAAAAAAPE?" stuff. That must have sounded much cooler in theory. There's room for improvement, but nothing that I'd think would bring it up to par here. NO

Nope. If I remember right, that distinction would belong to this.

Congrats to ravon & the Ormgas.com crew for collaborating with djp to get a link to the webstream on the OCR front page (and the return of the ReMix Roulette). It's all looking good, and we're more than glad for the extra attention! Good work, bros. Quite the good week for stuff, IMO, but let's leave that up to you. I've looked all over in particular this week, so let's jump right into the material for the week ending July 31st: Chronblom - Wizball "Piano Version" [R:K:O #2318] With R:K:O back in action this month, Swedish artist Per Chronberg dropped this quick but entertaining mix from the C64 classic Wizball. Though it's dubbed a piano version of the source material, Chronblom actually starts off with the piano but then segues into a fuller orchestral approach. The reverb's a little much, but this is a very cool 2 minutes of music from a mixer on the European scene who's completely self-taught. This one's currently going over pretty well as R:K:O and your encouraged to check it out for yourself. Hit up more of Per's material over at his homepage, http://www.chronberg.com. Corran & Aktulua70 - Megaman 2 "The Road to Wily's Castle" [VGMix2 #1961] Corran continues looking at mixing Megaman music, this time collabing with Aktulua for a fairly intense track, starting off with a little bit of "Quickman Stage" before moving to the bread and butter with the admittedly overmixed "Dr. Wily Stage 1." The percussion and synth beats used to accentuate the music here were pretty questionable to me at times. The drums/beats sounded kind of slapped on, and I hate exposed claps since they stick out really badly. Some (not all) of the voice samples were kind of jarring and didn't help keep the flow, but the energy is over the top most of the way. The guitars were hot even when other areas were lacking, and I generally liked the ideas here. For me, I was disappointed at the electronic elements involved, especially with such a strong and memorable intro, but you'll be interested to see what direction these two went in. The source material's really well known, so you should be able to DL this and make your own judgement call on how you like the interpretation. Interesting work from this VGMix duo. Cyborg Jeff - Donkey Kong Country 1 "Donkey Kong Sunset" [VGMix2 #1885] Pierre's back at VGMix with an "Aquatic Ambience" remix, and you might be thinking to yourself at this point, "Well why the hell do I want another one of those?" Alright; that's a perfectly valid question. This is a mix that doesn't harken back to the water/swimming imagery that many other previous "Aquatic Ambience" have embraced. Rather, "Donkey Kong Sunset" moves toward a stylistic choice that source material has never had. If you're a fan of dance techno, you'll enjoy the direction of this genre adaptation, along with CJ's use of a handful of voice samples from the DKC game itself. The groove doesn't deviate much once this gets going, but once this mix picks up the pace you'll know whether you're down with it or not. Daniel Baranowsky w/Ryan Probst - Jurassic Park (SNES) "Before Time" [OC ReMix #1223] I first heard this a few weeks ago and dropped some comments. Let's see what I said on July 10th: Now that the mix has been released, you better be saying "Whoa, WTF?!?" Danny B hooks it up with the live guitar skills of Ryan Probst to drop this Jurassic Park mix of the Mountains theme. As I mentioned those few weeks back, this one goes for a heavier rock approach than Yoozer's mix, with a good fusion of various guitar tracks, synths and that subtle but still noticeable bass pad action. Like djp pointed out in his writeup for the mix, this actually isn't the most melody-centric (making up words now ) mix, so you might have a hard time gaining a foothold in it while you listen to it. Yet Danny & Ryan actually do a great job using loose, even meandering variations of the source material and constantly switching up their sounds to continuously take things in new directions. I liked how a mix like this has some good energy but is actually pretty understated for a track with guitar rock elements. Es bueno.Destiny & zykO - Submarine Attack "Into the Deep" [OC ReMix #1222] After tapping weed to fix the original mix up with some live guitar, Destiny's back at OCR again this month with "Into the Deep", featuring some seldom heard electric violin. I always enjoy hearing Helen's breathy vocals and Celtic influences in her remixes, and this one's no exception. I know Submarine Attack's music as much as the next guy does, which means not at all, but the melody was pretty good here and I enjoyed both Helen & weed's strong interpretations of it; there was lots of gradual development here and I liked how everything flowed. This is a great follow-up to Destiny & zykO's first collaboration, the Chrono Cross mix "Dragon's Prayer: The Blackened Desire", and Helen's fifth OC mix of the year as she continues to make a name for herself. Feel free to hook yourself up with this one. Doragon - Eternal Champions 1 "Alerted Awareness" [ironMix Challenge XVIII: Eternally Yours / VGMix2 #1957] Now that I'm an OCR judge, I have the unenviable position of having to vote NO on remixes that I genuinely like. None was more apparent for me last week than Doragon's very cool Eternal Champions intro theme remix "Alerted Awareness". If you decide to take a look at my review along with the reviews of several other judges, you'll notice that the main problem that held this back from getting accepted was the percussion. Nonetheless, this has some of the most beautiful atmosphere you will ever hear in a remix, thanks to Doragon's masterful choice of samples and lead sounds. Even if you haven't played Eternal Champions, I'm really sure you'll enjoy most of the elements going on here. Once Doragon can refine his percussion techniques and take them to that next level, he'll be a sure thing for OCR no matter what he decides to remix. Doragon may be out of music for a little while for reasons unrelated to this judging decision, but I certainly hope circumstances allow him the time to keep honing his obvious skills. Fatty Acid - Chrono Trigger "Rhodes to the Past" [VGMix2 #1502 / OC ReMix to-be-posted] 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. Game Over - Megaman 3 & Megaman 2 "Cataclysmic Clash" [OC ReMix #1224] Sweden's answer to real ultimate power in the game music rock band department is finally (finally) back with this high octane "Topman Stage" mix. Ironically enough, I seem to be the only one who enjoyed "Cataclysmic Clash" more than Game Over's absolutely legendary Punch-Out!! mix "Little Mac's Confession". And because so many of you out there have been underwhelmed, per se, by this mix, I can only encourage you to kiss...my...ass! Seriously though, I thought the lyrics here were pretty good despite whatever cheese factor some might think they have, and the guitar work was full of quality Swedish meatball flavor, including a dope break at 2:41 into the Megaman II "Boss" theme with some freestyle added on top. But don't take my word for it. Take the word of the sage "judge Oji" quoted in the ReMix writeup. That man knows no wrong. As if there was any doubt, be sure to check out Game Over's latest and rock that shit down. Kadmium - Final Fantasy 7 "Despair, Inc" [VGMix2 #1741] Jesse Higginson brings a unique approach to the game remixing community with DEATH METAL! Now to be honest, death metal is kind of a cheesy genre for me, what with its lyrical style and all, so I'd rather spend time listening to funny faux metal from someone like my dawg Kompressor (!). But all things considered, I have to recognize unique and capably made work when I hear it, and this is certainly it. Definitely not for everyone, "Despair, Inc" features Kadmium with some menacing lyrics that get the point across and are tough to understand, just like real death metal. Admittedly, the power behind this mix is somewhat lacking when taking the genre into account. The guitar could have more raw energy and the percussion could be more bombastic, but this is nonetheless some pretty cool stuff that ain't nobody else is makin'. If you're open to a mix like this, well then sir or madam, you're in luck. Lix - Final Fantasy 5 "The New World (Remember Free)" Version 2.0 [Levo Lution XII] For a quick shot from the Japanese remixing scene, we'll go to Lix Exest, who has a brief but melancholy string & piano piece tackling the middle section of the 8-minute long "A New Origin". It's a little repetitive, as it goes for two straight loops of the same material, but it's short enough where you don't particularly notice that. Maybe Kaleb Grace would agree when I say that this sounds similar to the more moody stuff in the style of Masashi Hamauzu's SaGa Frontier 2 soundtrack (very phat soundtrack). A very short, but beautiful piece here that's instantly accessible to most any fan not for the source material is covers but it's very emotive atmosphere. Lloyd Banks, Eminem, Nate Dogg & 50 Cent f/DCT - "Warrior, Pt. 2 (Resilience Mix)" - [http://www.thebigshot.com] - Feedback Let's do the disclaimer. If you don't like swears, stay the fuck away. (And indeed, I bask in the irony of that last sentence.) DCT has another hot blend mix featuring a capella vocals redone with original beats, this time featuring G-Unit's Lloyd Banks with support by Eminem, Nate Dogg & 50 Cent from Banks' solo album "The Hunger for More". Duane's beats here aren't as involved as his blend remix of 50 Cent's "In Da Club", but often simplicity is key here in the hip-hop game, and that what you're getting here. And was that a sample of Sagat laughing from Street Fighter Alpha 3?!? Hotness yo. You know I caught that. DCT always does a great job taking mainstream a capellas that, frankly, I wouldn't listen to and making them much more laid back and accessible. Phat shit as usual from the Big Shot. (Ha! DNA!) MC Chris vs Robot Sock (Matt Wilson) - "Boys Don't Cry...Unless It's Final Fantasy" [Think Similarly: B-Sides and B-Buttons] - Track Feedback / Album Feedback Matt Wilson's chiptune work is fairly underappreciated in the remix community, as loads of NES music purists don't like when people expand NES-style music beyond the NES's 4 & 5 channel sound capabilities. (Sacrilege, I know. [rolls eyes]). Nonetheless, Matt caught my attention last year with the very cool work from his NES chiptune album done in the style of Megaman theme, "Megaman FM", including the very cool Sonic the Hedgehog 1 mix "Green Hill Man". To get a little background on the origins of this remix, I asked Matt what the deal with this track was over at #ocremix. The younger teens in the community are much more likely to be feeling MC Chris's lyrics here, though they're certainly amusing to anyone else who knows how lame trying to pick up ladies on the internet is. Matt's work here is excellent, as he stays faithful to the NES sound limitations and manages to create some very energetic and full sounds here. I thought the mastering was meh, since everything could sound sharper and clearer, but the overall presentation is great and you won't find anything like it around. Keep up with the threads above for more info on Wilson's in progress chiptune album "Think Similarly" and check out the action at http://www.highscoreonline.com to hit up Matt's popular Flash animation work, including the cartoon series High Score and Bonus Stage.Mythril Nazgul - Chrono Trigger "The 6th Omen" [The People's Remix Competition 19 / VGMix2 #1053] As mentioned in his VGMix description, Myth managed to go through five ideas before settling on this sixth one for the remix and coming up with something really solid. Considering I heard Bladiator's own PRC19-winning remix of the same material ("Woman in a Black Dress") a few weeks when PRC19 wrapped up, I was really surprised with how I couldn't place the two as remixes of the same theme. Myth manages to take some pretty basic sounds and weave some true rearranging magic on 'em to produce this very liberal and inspired take on Yasunori Mitsuda's "Black Dream". The synth choices come together wonderfully, showing how one can create a mix that stands out regardless of any sample limitations. Good combination sound choices, interesting progression, and tight work from the always-improving Mythril Nazgul. This is one that comes at you in a different way and a mix that I think you'll be impressed by. Nasenmann - "Kurd Dreams" [Original Remix Competition 5] - ZIP of ORC5 Entries Nasenmann proved victorious for ORC5 as he remixed Chockster37's original MIDI into an interesting excellent ambient/guitar/wind combination. Cool work here at providing a slightly unsettling atmosphere through the dark ambience, guitar, and various sound effects & vox that contrasts well with the lighter instruments added into the equation. Check out the aforementioned ZIP file in order to pick this up, alongside strong runner-up entries from TO ("Chee of Chambertron") & Less Ashamed of Self ("Cheezy Does It"). Sefiros - Silent Hill 1 "Bleeding Out" [VGMix2 #1982] I never played Silent Hill at all (hey, I don't care), but like any game I'm not familiar with, good music can always supersede my reluctance to check out a particular game's music. The first encounter I had with the source material here, Akira Yamaoka's "Not Tomorrow", was from an asskicking rock cover WIP that K. Praslowicz never ended up finishing (and he'll likely beat the crap out of you if you bug him about it). So with that in mind, I knew I had to give Bryan Henderson's take on the same theme a look and see if I was down with the Scottish, haggis-like flavor. This older mix of Sefiros's is primarily a piano piece with some effects on it as well as some MEATY bass (damn straight!). The realism and dynamics on the piano aren't there at all and the percussion is meh, so those are areas of improvement that would have really made this sound a lot better, but the general feeling here is good; moody at the outset and picking up in intensity around the 2:30 mark to become more forceful before dropping back down for a simpler finish. This mix won't PWN it on you, but it's definitely got some good aspects to it that made it worth checking out. SnappleMan - CastleVania 2 (Gameboy) "The Crystal Coffin" [VGMix2 #1979] - OC Feedback In a drunken haze, SnappleMan posted the first completed remix in his effort to remix the entire CV2 Gameboy soundtrack (also proving that Snapple isn't his real beverage of choice). Rejoice, for Andy's b00zed up mistakes are your gain with this guitar-driven mix of track 9 of the GBS soundtrack. Until Andy pimped out the CV2 Gameboy soundtrack my way, I never knew how good it was. I've always been partial to CastleVania III myself. But the CV2 GB music is good the whole way through and will provide excellent fodder for SnappleMan's ideas. "The Crystal Coffin" functions mostly as a straightforward rock arrangement of the source material, with quality production and proficient axe work from Snap. As Andy continues to refine his game and get more work out there, he's poised to make a serious mark on those fans among up who NEED their heavy rock fix, especially those who frequent the OverRocked ReMix links area. I'll be seeing what I can do myself to get him up on there! Star Salzman - Xenogears "Pillar of Salt" [VGMix2 #1934 / OC ReMix #1225] Having talked about this last week, and gushed my proverbial fandom on it, let's quote what I said on the 24th: And, dammit, now that this is at OCR, Star's gonna be swimming in groupies I tell you. SWIMMING! Ya bastard...Stemage - Metroid 1 "The Escape" [Metroid Metal] You've killed the Mother Brain, but you gotta get the fuck out of there! What do you have playing in your ear? Hopefully it's the latest track from Grant Henry in the Metroid Metal series, "The Escape." There's a pretty deliberate pace here, as Stemage likes to keep the tempo intact and not deviate much from the source material here, though you do get some screaming sound effects at the end. This is certainly some infrequently covered material though and another strong addition to the series as it nears completion. Pretty much all of the Metroid Metal series is good, especially the energy of "The Theme"; follow up listening to SnappleMan's new CV2 mix by trying out the "The Escape" for more rock stuffs. SuperGreenX w/Aurora - "Deep Breath" [http://www.supergreenx.com] - Feedback This here's my pick of the week! Ever since Danny let me hear the WIP of this original dance trance cut at the top of the month, I was waiting for him to put the finishing touches on this. I've been a huge fan of SGX, especially on the originals side, since early 2003, and every time he drops a new track strictly of his creation, the result is smokin' hot. I'd like to hear a cleaner version of this, since I think it's a little muffled compared to the sharp WIP I heard just a few weeks ago, but the overall presentation is absolutely the shit. Here, Dan uses some leftover vox samples he had of the always-lovely Aurora from her work on their collab with destructo, Beyond Good & Evil "Frame of Mind". Like I was telling Teresa in #ocremix, I originally had no idea that SGX had used her voice for his samples there, which only makes this track more of a standout. With the vocals patterns you hear Aurora's voice take, I have no clue how Supa was able to even form a mental image of how he wanted them to work like that. Amazing work. This is quite the long track at 9:43, but this is very well-constructed effort with pulsating shake-yo'-ass energy, no annoying repetition to fall back on over the course of the track (constant development!) and creativity to spare! Don't delay. DL today. tefnek vs n0mad - The Revenge of Shinobi "Long Distance" [Revenge of Shinobi Remix Project] - Feedback Recently completed, the very interesting 13-minute, 12-mix Revenge of Shinobi Remix Project spanned the course of four months and an entire ocean as North Carolina's tefnek & France's n0mad teamed up to give the entire Revenge of Shinobi soundtrack some quality coverage treatment. Check out the album link above to hook it up with the full 13:22/18.37MB megamix and follow the action with the full tracklist, courtesy of both tef & n0mad. Or head over to the album link and get the low on the individual tracks, which are all separately available for your listening pleasure as well. As you'll see when you check it out, this project was structured with both mixers collabing for both the opening and ending (both ending tracks I've linked to above), with each mixer taking alternating works from Yuzo Koshiro's soundtrack at roughly minute-long intervals. The transitions hear worked surprisingly well, and the groove throughout is nothing but nice. (11:35 is the best part! Hahahahaha!) tefnek's already a more known mixer thanks to having one OC ReMix posted with one more on the way, and this finished collab project is a great example of his skills. n0mad's moving on up as well, and you can check out the second VERSUS project he's been working on with fellow Frenchman ReaktorZ0, the more obscure (but catchy) Genesis game Ristar. (Let's hope RZ0 can still keep working on the project; I'd love to see it completed.) Exceptional work from both guys and a unique product you've gotta check without question. Trenthian - "Oloren City by the Sea" [http://www.soundclick.com/bands/6/trentprojectmusic.htm] - Feedback John St. John is someone who's greatly impressed me with his creativity, predominantly in the original work areas, as Trent's one of SoundTempest.net's ear-catching artists, dabbling in original compositions that could be used in original game projects. Here's we have a very brief, work-in-progress level release in "Oloren City by the Sea" that's created as an RPG town-type theme. I liked Trent's use of synths and effects, many of which I recognized from other artists and tracks I've heard. Here he makes those elements form together nicely for a very upbeat, almost ethnic-flavored piece that has infinite potential to be expanded. Make sure you have a SoundClick account if the download is a no-go. I hope John continues to add a little something to this to realize it's potential. Otherwise the fans are gonna do the frowny face. Don't do that to us, Trenthian! Now let's do a quick and dirty rundown on the WIP front, just the way you like it: Pyscrow - Final Fantasy 2, Xenogears & CastleVania: SotN, GrayLightning - Final Fantasy 6, Dj MetaZero - Megaman X5, Tranquil Chaos - Halo, zircon - Secret of Mana, TO - SimCity 2000, BliziHiZaKe - Donkey Kong Country 2, Matt Wilson - Ghosts'n Goblins, binster - Gauntlet 3, Infamous - "some dancey crap" (original) Suzumebachi had some funny shit to say over at Rob Saunders' server including how much he hates you , why he hates his insurance company, and a brief shot at Wal-Mart as he joins bLiNd & Jared Hudson as the company's latest slave. Ah, Ty, I hope your rants never stop! Things were heating up all over the place this week, as various debates, flames and confrontations took place. Most notable of all was the negative criticism of several mixers in the review thread for Kaijin's recently posted Xenogears OC ReMix "Child of the Stars". Several people argued over the arrangement merit of the mix, with Star Salzman & Kaijin in particular having dramatically different views on the situation. You've gotta check the thread out to see all the spine-tingling (internet message board) action, since it's now TOO HOT to be left unlocked! (OMG!) All the fierce debate though has brought "Child of the Stars" under consideration to be reevaluated in a few months as to whether or not it fits the OCR submissions standards when the community-at-large engages in the next wave of removal suggestions for OCR1250. Keep you ears open on what will be going on with this one. Meanwhile the VGMix forums aren't immune to OMG (internet message board) CONTROVERSY of their own with chiptunist Matt Wilson posting up information his in-progress chiptune album "Think Similarly", only to be met with tons of cries of false advertising. When Matt used the phrase "NEStunes" to describe the music he was promoting, several artists including Gwilym Wogan, tumult, skilled chiptunist RushJet1, and NES soundfont creator (and all-around good guy, I swear) Midee all cried foul, claiming that Matt's obviously informal use of the word "NEStunes" implied to the public that his tracks were made exactly like original NES music, which I, in particular, thought was a weak assumption, especially since Wilson then provided a disclaimer about the nature of his tracks. With the original thread locked, lots of good debate followed via the VGMix chatterbox and the #vgmix IRC channel. Finally mv & I at least concluded that "NEStunes" might mistakenly imply the wrong thing to some people, but that its use wasn't intentionally misleading thus not deserving the very touchy and overblown negative response it got. A lot of musicians like virt, who know a lot about making NES-sound tracks within NES limitations, contended that several NES-limitation chiptunists have used the phrase "NES tunes" which is close enough to show that Wilson can't use it and not give off the wrong impression about his tracks that do more than a Nintendo can do. But at the same time, people have to understand that informal language like that doesn't imply or support anything virt's talking about. Koji Kondo or Hip Tanaka could easily say "Hey! You can't call your music 'NES tunes'! I don't care if that follows the sound limitations of the Nintendo. 'NES tunes' implies that these songs were from actual NES games." And the never-ending battle of words could pointlessly continue forever...even though I'm completely right. In any case, some good debate was had by all, and luckily cooler heads prevailed. Check out the new thread by Matt Wilson to follow the progress on "Think Similarly", which already has some promising work completed. And finally, I'd be remiss not to mention the overwhelmingly bad reaction Doom 2 "Demons from Hell", Terminator's latest VGMix, received in both reviews and buzz comments, especially since I'm partially involved in what can only be called a bunch of harsh, downright scathing reviews. There's some debate/arguing over how constructive one should be when reviewing a beyond mediocre remix, but some efforts can't be saved. Check out the remix and all the back-and-forth so far to see what I mean. And that's all the yakk yakk this guy has for ya this week. Drop some comments and I'll see you next week.

For a few listens, I was trying to compare the first section with the original and was getting nowhere. The reason this sounded misleading as a ReMix was because it essentially went for over a minute as just original material until the second half went full on into rearrangement territory at 1:11. Once it got there, everything was gold from both the music and rearrangement departments. If the sections had been placed in a different order, there wouldn't have been any confusion over this meeting the submission standards. Nice working of the main theme here with the straightforward lead strings while the piano section in the back handled things nicely with Star's creative overhaul of a rearrangement. Excellent stuff. And of course the lyrics were hilarious. Way better than that BEERmix piece of shit he had, "Dragony Antics." I disagree with Prot wanting this mix to be longer. I was feeling it, but this idea would just wear thin beyond 3 minutes. He's in. He's out. We laughed. YES

Yeesh. Better reply back to everyone quick: Zoast: The pitch was where I had issue with the vox, not the production. The production was pretty good, IMO. Hope people are really checking the mix out. Tron-6K!: Sorry bro. I'm a no-go on Magfest 3.0. Need $ to go, which I never have. I'd definitely go if it were possible. Sorry about not replying to that PM. I read it way back and said "I'll reply later" then I forgot to reply. If you wanna be like an "official VG Frequency correspondant" during Magfest and call into the show during the Saturday of Magfest, that would be the shit, especially if you were boozed and totally shitfaced. We gotta make it happen, Justin! KG: Yo bro! Thanks for the congrats. If you wanna do some stuff covering official/unofficial VGM music releases, that would be great, sure. I don't do that for the Pimp Section myself since 1) I'm so focused with the community here, 2) I'm currently on dial-up for the summer so I can't just get any game music I want, and 3) I can't afford to pony up the dollas for actual game music CDs. Feel free to do your own forum post or add stuff here. If you decide to do something, I'm sure it'll be good to read. Just make sure to hook people up with links and everything. Gotta be able to get the tracks (even the elusive ones). TO: I'm not actually on the air until mid/late September, but I can pimp some tracks out and give any particularly good ones some airplay in the fall. Drop me a line anytime about 'em when they're good to go, Lee. Like Xerol mentioned, I think I'm fairly accessible about playing stuff for my show as long as it's good. weed: No prob on the pimp at all, bro. The mix gets better and better every time I listen to it, and as you get more used to the flow and listen more intently to everything going on, you really feel how cohesive it is, despite how things change fairly rapidly. Hot work yo. I'm glad you'll still be doing some infrequent mixes. SGX: Awesome! I've been waiting for this one. Excellent work. I didn't even know that was Teresa you sampled. Amazing shit. I'll cover it when the new Pimp Section goes up. It'll be up relatively soon bros. Stay tuned.

Pretty cool stuff overall. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Kingdom Hearts' OST, so I'd really prefer for someone to verify the arrangement content ("Hollow Bastion", with some of "Destati"). I know it's all good though. The piano in particular could use some more realistic dynamics, but the way each note had practically the same velocity, the piano sounded strong in its relative spraseness. Kind of ironic that this mix and destructo's FF8 mix "The Lost Horizon" essentially have the same intro. The string, drum & piano build until the 90-second mark was excellent. Once things picked up at 1:49, especially with the piano coming back at 2:03, everything conveyed pretty frantic, suspenceful imagery. The lack of realism on the sample dynamics could be thought of as a negative, but I thought that added a certain character to the piece that clicked for me. Compositionally, everything is paced well, resulting in sensible builds and a quality flow. It makes me wanna buy Kingdom Hearts so I can whoop somebody's ass with Donald Duck. Good job by my man SGX with the mastering here, by the way. Everything's sounding pretty nice. I'm all about the YES on this one. Can't wait to have you swing by WMRE to guest host VG Frequency this coming school year, sephfire. It'll definitely be happening. Good work, Dan! YES

I'm checking if Jack can touch up the ending. I'll hear back from him pretty soon. EDIT (7/29): tefnek's indeed gonna touch up the ending so it isn't odd anymore. He'll be able to do it once he gets back home in 2 weeks.

Heh. Yeah, pretty good stuff yo. I wouldn't quite YES it yet myself; thought the vox has a few issues, but I liked it overall. It's a tiny bit remiscent of Stephen Kennedy's FF8 mix of Balamb Garden for PMM: Nobuo Uematsu. Keep it up!

Are you insinuating something? Though you're technically a listener judge, I think of you more as a musican (Mr. Tablas), since you are excellent and make my mulatto groins shiver in glee. As we all know, "You Make Music."

Last week was a nice week for me personally, but things have been rough for us as at Ormgas.com. Fellow Ormgas member Mattias "Sockan" Ström, whom we knew as SockULF, passed away on July 21st after being viciously assaulted on Saturday the 17th by a drugged up man who, seemingly at random, knocked Sockan down and attacked him by kicking him in the head repeatedly. After suffering severe brain damage and only being able to breathe with the aid of a respirator, he passed away this past Wednesday. He was only 22 years old. For his friends and family, along with others such as myself who didn't know Sockan closely, it's a very difficult situation made more difficult by how senseless it was. If you need more information about the attack on SockULF, it's available at Ormgas.com. Even though most of you do not know him, you can nonetheless view the condolences given at http://sockan.ormgas.com. Ormgas went silent from this past Thursday until late Sunday as a memoriam. The news that I was personally happy about this past week was that I was nominated among a list of candidates and subsequently chosen by the OCR Judges' Panel to be the newest Judge with OverClocked ReMix! Without gushing over the news like a fanboy, I have to admit that it's an honor to be among the people that help in large part on deciding what music is chosen for OCR. After first coming to OC in early 2002 as a guy with a casual interest in video game music, I've come about as far as a fan possibly can in the community. I'd like to personally thank my friends Matt Kertz & Joe Mauri, since it's their "fault" that I found out about OCR, later listened to every OC ReMix ever made, and got serious about playing video game music on the radio. Without them, I wouldn't have ever found a community with such talent and creativity. I'll get into some more thoughts about judging later in the Pimp Section, but for now, let's get into what music caught my attention for the week ending Saturday, July 24th: ArseAssassin - "Shattered Stars" [http://personal.inet.fi/urheilu] - Feedback Tuomas's samples here are pretty generic to me, since I've heard a lot of techno and trance tackled with most of the sounds here. Despite that, everything here comes together for some well-constructed, upbeat techno that you can relax to if you prefer something energetic going on. The reverb's a little too heavy at times, but the atmosphere is good and everything flows through nicely with a pretty comfortable groove. There's still some additional production work and tweaks to be done by AA since this is for a contest at Mikseri.net, but check out "Shattered Stars" for some very solid original work on the dance techno side. binster - X-Out "LiquidX Remix (VGMix Version)" [VGMix2 #62] Along with hanging out with A Scholar & A Physician, Martin Binfield has come out some impressive stuff in the past few months, so if you haven't heard his Ico mix "Icon," you're doing yourself a great disservice. Following up on the ethnic/techno hybrid of Icon, Binster's got some thick-sounding techno on deck with the long-awaited release of this X-Out mix on VGMix. At times, this one sounds a little rough around the edges, but the groove is excellent. Hopefully, Binster follows through with this C64 release by dropping this one on R:K:O as well. Martin's not sure if he wants to submit this as is for OCR yet, so I'll just have to wait patiently, but you fans out there need to get aboard on this one. I could use a few adjustments on the EQing side to not let some of the end feel as cluttered, but this is strong work overall that you won't be disappointed in. Captain Tortilla (Dennis Mott) - "fok the fok" [Melamine EP] - Feedback If OverCoat's waiting on pin and needles for this, you know it's gotta be...decent. Dennis plugged the release of his 2nd EP over at the VGMix forums, which features some short simple tracker work. There are some interesting ideas here, even if a this is a hit-or-miss prospect. Along with the "provocatively-named" track I chose to highlight, the Cap'n has got some other songs you might enjoy, like "another song title" & "shangro-diggalo." Disposer - Lufia 2 "Time to Come Home" [VGMix2 #1900] Just in terms of other material I've heard in the past, this sounds more like a Beej/Mustin collab than Disposer's stuff, and I absolutely love "Time to Come Home" for that. The piano, guitar and string elements here come together very nicely along with cameos by several other instruments. This needs some refining to really go that extra mile (for example, the sax sounds very flat). Pretty damn promising, and lots of potential to be exploited further here. GrayLightning & SnappleMan - Secret of Mana "Distorted Star" [VGMix2 #1353 / OC ReMix #1220] Over a year ago when Gray was relatively new to the OC scene and his new age work didn't carry as much finesse, Gray suffered two controversial rejections at the hand of the OCR judges' panel. The first one of those rejections was for "Distorted Star." Generally willing to give material he's not satisfied with another look, Gray had SnappleMan help him out by laying down some guitar alongside the original work. Thanks to Andy's additions, the track has more energy along with a bit more coherence and flow that the original lacked. (New age...we just don't understand it. The feel is a bit raw, but these two had what it took to get the job done, and this works as a very interesting combination of new age and electric guitar, showing you that nearly anything isn't out of the question when it comes to remixing. Mark Vera - Laser Squad "Mission Recalled" [Laser Squad Nemesis OST / OC ReMix #1217] Jouni Airaksinen's back in short order with another hot-as-hell space mix, this time covering the Amiga side with Laser Squad. It's pretty cool that Mark has these connections with European game music composers, as Laser Squad Nemesis is the second game remake project he's represented on OCR following his massive bunch of submissions from Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters. It's not often you have a remixer that regularly impresses judges like Protricity & Dan Baranowsky, but Vera's got a lot of skills under his belt and this one's another highly proficient space game track that you'll need to hit up. For quality work on the European scene brought to North America you needn't look any further. Ork Estral (Nigel Simmons) - "Funny Crinkle Flakes" [http://nigel.has.it] Ork Estral (Nigel Simmons) - "Illusory Fields of Pink and Blue" [http://nigel.has.it] Here's my pick of the week. For those of you familiar with Ork Estral's remix work, and even some of his original material, Nigel is here this week to blow you away with experimental stuff that you'd practically never expect to hear from him. "Funny Crinkle Flakes" certainly has a very cool style of it's own that I can almost guarantee you'll be impressed by, and dammit, I'm gonna be keeping that one for a long time. But the real surprise I had here was "Illusory Fields of Pink and Blue" which had no orchestral foundations at all. This one's done in I guess what you would call an avant garde style (since I have no idea at all what you'd call it. The first time I heard this, I said "WTF?" and didn't really know how to react. The second time I heard this though, and got used to the structure, I loved it. There are lots of guys in the game remix community whom I particularly recommend when it comes to original compositions, including SuperGreenX & Star Salzman. But if you're going to check out Nigel Simmons, you absolutely have to download every single one of the 30+ originals he's got available and try them for yourself. These two pieces of his really present a stylistic range you may not have known he possesses. OverCoat - Azumanga Daioh "Chiyo Runs Away from Home!" [The People's Remix Competition: Animation 4] I have no idea what Azumanga Daioh is, but Scott has a cool folk-style mix from the anime for PRC:A4. As the only entrant, SOC was the undisputed winner, but this is some pretty cool stuff nonetheless. You not only get folk guitar for the base with very moody almost ethereal ambiance, but you get some live harmonica work as well for the latter half of the track to give you a different flavor. Aside from watching some of those harmonica levels, everything came together pretty nicely. In order to get something more accessible for the next compo, OverCoat's chosen a track from Noir as the next source tune for PRC:A5. OverCoat - "Give Me My Dreams!" [CompoST 26] It wouldn't be quite a full week without OverCoat coming out with some distorted ambient material, so you can check out his winning entry for SoundTempest's CompoST 26, where the genre choice of original game music was that of a dream world. Whereas most people would go for a more lighthearted take on the subject matter, Scott's instead gone for more of a piece where the dream's gone wrong, resulting in this sinister-sounding track that was strong enough to take the victory. The odd sounds and rough textures sound much more out of something you could find in the Resident Evil or Parasite Eve series, successfully creating quite the disturbing atmosphere. OverCoat - Super Metroid "Mommy Dearest" [VGMix2 #1915] Here's some industrial-strength horror work from OC to round out his contributions this week (he sure keeps busy). In a tribute to the crazy-as-hell Joan Crawford (awesome!), OverCoat tackles Minako Hamano's "Mother Brain" with nothing but raw power and some phat samples of Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in the role that was so damn good that the Blue Oyster Cult paid tribute to it in their 1981 hit "Joan Crawford (Has Risen from the Grave)". That was a damn good song from the BOC, but more importantly, this is just some cool work from the SOC. As you know, OverCoat's work isn't for everybody, but there's a lot of character behind it, especially this offering. "Clean up this mess." So good! OverCoat - "ur2hawt4me" [CompoST 27] BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Turn the volume DOWN! Shnabubula - Guardian Legend "Red Spiders" [OC ReMix #1218] With a name only a mother could love, Shnabubula makes his debut on OCR with what he self-described as a half-finished submission from the NES classique, Guardian Legend. With something this eclectic and scattered, I'm really glad it's not longer than two minutes. That's NOT to say that this is bad, because this is actually a pretty kickass idea here, but there's only so much that's acceptable when the construction is purposefully disjointed like this. This is pretty hot work that I'm sure the majority of listeners won't understand at all, but give it more than a mere chance. I thought this was odd, but the style grows on you and sounds a lot more logical as you get used to it. Short but sweet. Star Salzman - Xenogears "Pillar of Salt" [VGMix2 #1934] This here is, at this current point in time, what'd I'd consider the magnum opus of Star's mixing career. I've liked other tracks more than this, sure, but there is NOTHING that even touches the effort and creativity of "Pillar of Salt." With all the food, sweat and beers poured into the creation of this one, everyone knew this would be great. Like I said when I pimped the WIP of this last week, this is a hybrid of both Dazil & Omen from Yasunori Mitsuda's Xenogears soundtrack featuring two time signatures, 3/4 & 4/4, AND both Arabic & Hebrew lyrics (which can be found in full at the VGMix page). Seems like everything works in pairs. If you know Arabic fluently (zykO), you'll have to forgive Star for any pronunciation errors in the work (zykO), although it's great work especially for someone who isn't familiar with the language (right, weed? . Meanwhile, the Hebrew sections are immaculate. Dive in and prepare to hear Xenogears on an entirely different level. Truly excellent work that Star's got every right to be proud of. (But stop gloating in my face, bro! I don't care how many groupies it got you!!! tefnek - "Para Bellum" [http://www.tefnek.com] tefnek's latest original release is a dope breakbeat track with some ambient underpinnings that features samples of Dwight Eisenhower's D-Day speech 60 years ago. Fans only familiar with tefnek's big beat style from his Streets of Rage mix "Drop and Roll" get a slight change of pace here, although Jack actually produces breakbeat work just as often as he does big beat work. The tempo's at a nice pace here and the music get a little bit harder around the 2:40 mark when tefnek engages in some quasi-Crystal Method style action. This is certainly one you'd wanna check out to further familiarize yourself with tefnek's work. Keep on the lookout in the near future for his recently OC-accepted Raiden II remix "Airborne" as well. TO - Max Payne 2 "Keep on Distorting Everything" [The People's Remix Competition 20] Lee's winning entry into PRC20 took on the very challenging Max Payne 2 ending theme "Late Goodbye" by Poets of the Fall (a very, very nice track picked out by Bladiator). TO himself said this was crud, so we'll leave it at that! (Oh come on, it's not that bad dammit.) Check out PRC21 and follow the progress as TO's source tune choice from Descent gets the PRC touch. trickwaters - "A Final Fantasy Wedding Processional" [VGMix2 #1925] Pat's back at VGMix with his second orchestral-style release, this time with an ambitious FF medley that's titled in such an abstract manner that I have no conception what it's about. Seriously though, this is quite the lengthy piece that works as well as something like Jayson Litrio's "Dr. Wily's Wedding." Dear God, I don't plan on getting married, but I'm sure that this mix will serve some heartstruck gamers very well as they walk down the aisle and make the worst mistake of their lives...I mean...um...take on the vows of holy alimony...matrimony. Commenting on the actual mix, TW's samples at times have some flaws, but overall, I thought the progression of theme was excellent, with several false finishes that worked quite well. If u in wuv, u git it 4 yo BF/GF n say i luv u! ... I luv u. Unknown - "The Phantom Forge" [CompoST 25] Ty took first place for C25 early in the week with his take on an abandoned factory theme. Spooky st00f featuring eerie ethereal ambiance, bell tolls, some brief drums and a very "hollow" atmosphere if you get what I mean...of course you don't. Just go get it. zircon - Chrono Trigger "Calamitous Judgment" [VGMix2 #1594 / OC ReMix #1219] I've been with this one since it was first released last month, so let's go back to what I had to say about in for the June 26th Pimp Section: Luckily, I got to show my appreciation for this mix by helping to approve it for OCR, which you can check out here. This is straight up awesome work that finally makes zircon a breakout name!Zoast - Final Fantasy 6 "To All My Past Loves" [VGMix2 #1908] I took a closer look at this mix from Marshall Thorne once mv gave it props in his review for it on VGMix. With someone as proficient at mixing as Xavier endorsing it, I knew this would be pretty solid. This is primarily an acoustic guitar shot of "Forever Rachel" with some reverbed vox near the end provided by Zoast himself along with a touch of organ. Ironically enough, this is also the second piece this week with wedding written all over it, as Marshall specifically created this as music for a friend's wedding reception. This is some pretty relaxing stuff, and a good effort from Zoast, who I'll be keeping an eye out for from now on. It's FF6, you know you people out there want it. Zoltan Vegvari - Mega Man 3 "Intro Jazz" [OC ReMix #1221] For quite a while, I saw that this mix had been passed by the OC judges' panel, waiting to be posted. Yet it never went up on the site. Why why why? The wait was because they needed confirmation from Zoltan himself that this could be posted. As far as I know, this was only the second mix on OCR that was actually submitted by someone else for a friend (the first being Stephen Kennedy's Batman "Music of Funk" by Mustin). The production is meh, but that's not what's important here; this is some strong work led by Vegvari, a Hungarian jazz pianist turned music professor, featuring some light percussion and wind support. The pace is excellent, and the sounds work together nicely. Though I'd give anything to sharpen this track up with some remastering, Zoltan & crew won't do you wrong here. This is a nice, refreshing take on Bun Bun's MM3 intro that you might wanna plug to fellow (non-VGM) music enthusiasts. zykO - Faxanadu "Sketch of a Potentially Contrived Memory" [VGMix2 #1938] Crazy. This is some odd stuff from my man weed that takes all sorts of interesting turns as he cycles through several tracks from the Faxanadu soundtrack. Much like "Red Spiders" from Shnabubula, you'll appreciate this one if you can get past the perpetual style clash that seems to be going on throughout the track. Unlike Shnabubula's mix though, the style changes are even MORE dramatic and spontaneous. zykO must have been on the GOOD shit! I'm not trying to sound artsy-fartsy, but you can only appreciate this hybrid rock/piano/Spanish/acid smorgasbord after several very involved listens. The question for you is, are you up for the challenge? With the pimps out of the way, I guess I've gotta pimp myself as the newest OCR Judge. I've been regularly reading OCR judging decisions for over a year, I've listened to every OC ReMix, along with countless other VGM mixes & originals, I've given listener-based advice to tons of people in the community, and I feel I know the music standards of OCR better than any other person who actually doesn't create phat b33tz. I've been judging at OCR for less than a week, but it's already a lot of fun. I've managed to get through all of the current voting so far (give me a prize!), and a lot of the rendered decisions I've participated in have already been released to the public. Check 'em out (July 20th and after) over at the OCR Judges Decisions forum. Thanks to djpretzel for the welcome I got within zircon's debut mix, "Calamitous Judgment", along with Protricity & the other members of the panel for considering me for the job. I also don't wanna forget all the people who make the VG Frequency radio show what it is (the mixers & fans; we'll be back on in September), along with a big thanks to ravon and my fellow staffers at Ormgas.com, where VG Frequency has a true home. As far as hobbies go, a lot of people played important parts in getting me to this point. See ya next week, bros and sisters.

Heh. This certainly sounds like one Israfel could enjoy and enlighten me about. Need the original to compare this to though: http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFXI_psf2.rar I suppose it may only be the FFXI Opening Theme or the Prelude, but I can't be sure (on dial-up). If anyone can find the original here out of these PSFs, lemme know. It sounds reminiscent of music from A Clockwork Orange; not completely like it, but it has some stylistic similarities. Potentially sounds like something I could YES. As Gray was thinking, if this is a straight playthrough from the FFXI Doremi Piano Solo Arrangement Book, that could be a problem too, although the instrument style here is certainly different than just a piano.

http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/spcsets/ed2.rsn - "Battle #1" The EQing's actually not bad on this one. Violin lead is very unnaturally done and needs dynamics. Some of the notes of the organ-like keyboard are bad if you pay attention to that area; same with the synth guitar during the section it had in tandem with the choir vox. The percussion's too generic here as well and doesn't really have anything going on. The ending a little too abrupt as well. All of the instruments are flat and lack energy. This likely is a MIDI/SPC rip of "Battle #1,", though I'll leave a potential NO Override up to someone else (I iz n00b juj). In any case, this is a cover mix that just doesn't have it. NO

http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/spcsets/sd3.rsn - "Swivel" (Highlands theme) Indeed, I remember this track from PRC8. Played it on VG Frequency back in February, although as TO mentioned the original remix was sans guitar. Thus, I confirmed with Lee that this is indeed dubbed "Electrion (Guitar Mix)" to reflect the additions. Considering that this current version is literally v1 with various guitar lines added, I thought the production on the combined tracks was excellent. The sound's pretty clean, and you can't even tell that this is two separate productions fused into one. Nearly none of FIDGAF's added guitar work took away from the ambient atmosphere TO originally established here. The percussion was pretty good (not great), but I enjoyed how the hip-hop beats was structured as well. I thought FIDGAF's support work was pretty nice. The timing on the guitar intro is noticeably odd, BUT with the way it progressed, as it synched up with the timing of TO's intro at 0:20, I thought it built a little bit of intrigue as to where this would be going. Good use of panning for the electricity sound effects from 0:19-0:40 (and later on) in the track. When the guitar swelled for the chorus (1:20-1:31 & 2:40-2:51) I thought it was mastered too loudly, as it was topping out the low mid-range frequencies while sounding shrill and somewhat overbearing compared to the rest of the music. Though loud and all up in my face there, the guitar overall was minimalist in some sections and powerful in others, yet sounding clean throughout, so props for that. We'll see if Vig and/or Danny B in particular thought it was solid. A subtle, 41-second fadeout, I see. That was actually a nice move. I would have liked to have heard FIDGAF do some more light freeform work of his own during some of the quieter areas, but overall, I can't complain. The rearrangement is pretty liberal, as this involves taking only the first 15 seconds of Swivel's melody (which, to be fair, is at a really fast tempo) and refashioning it into a somewhat different kind of theme, and I have to say that hearing sections such as the belltones at the 2-minute mark showed some of the most logical rearrangement ideas I've ever heard. TO's original compositional ideas seamlessly connected with the arranged game music. I would have enjoyed hearing some more sections from the source tune being applied in TO's liberal rearrangement style, but in some ways I can see why he didn't, since the source tune isn't that interesting IMO. Others might contend this is too liberal an arrangement, but I felt that it didn't branch too, too far out from the inspiration, despite the notable overhaul TO gave it. We'll see. I remember thinking back when this came out for PRC8 that I hoped TO wouldn't submit it, if only because it didn't have enough going on with it at the time. I felt adding FIDGAF to the picture created a lot more energy with this mix, while not overshadowing the subtle hip-hop beats and ambient sounds that made "Electrion" interesting in the first place. It's a very successful hybrid of styles. Solid work, bros. YES

I loved this mix and all the sounds used within it. I remember back when Shael was polling the WIP forums on whether or not he should replace the synth guitar with a real one, and I voted no. The synth guitar and retro effects here definitely weren't annoying to me at all, and the track has tons of character here thanks to the sound choices involved. The "bad note" at 1:37, I don't agree on. None of the notes hit me the wrong way and I thought the flow was good, not low-fi monotony. Having heard this track many times since April, I never had to get used to any type of "oddities" in the melodic progression when I first heard it. With that said, more could be done to make this feel different compared to the source tune. Like Dan said this is essentially a cover; the tempo change is nice, but the structure is so close to "The Tragic Prince" in both the melody and portions of the countermelody. Also, with the lead instrumentation so close to the original, the guitar dynamics here are noticeably not as realistic as the source tune's, which could possibly mean that some MIDI shortcomings weren't addressed. I wouldn't know for sure. Yet I really thought a lot of decent instrumental samples together in an effective way to give this track a genuinely different feel as an arrangement (not rearrangement), and that's totally notwithstanding the voice samples (which, frankly, weren't even used a lot and didn't come off as a crutch to me). I'm actually a little pissed that my choice wasn't easy for this, because before I heard the source tune I was ready to give this an easy YES. I don't like it at all, because either vote has some merit with me. Like I said though, I liked how all the sounds came together, and I'm sure I'm in the minority with this crowd when it comes to that, as this is pretty minimalistic. If this made it though, I believe it would have a genuine place here as a more straightforward style arrangement. YES (dancing with the borderline)

Percussion is really poor too. NO

This certainly takes a tefnek/big beat-type approach to Tetsuya Shibata's "Doll Eyes," but this just doesn't work. The intro synth is flat and sounds muddy, and I just knew the mastering was gonna be bad once I heard that. Props (in theory) for the semi-phat b33tz; you don't get too many tracks where turning on subwoofers would break them. That's all I felt this track had going for it, but hey...phat b33tz. During the second iteration of the melody from 1:13-1:28, you had only what I could describe as this odd, slimy-sounding ambiance underneath it that clashed with the keyboard. Both the piano AND keyboards were incredibly flat as well the whole way through, and the brief key change from 2:12-2:27 was a weak try at throwing a little variation in. For some reason, at 2:43 going into the fadeout, the bass pads and all the background activity stopped matching up in key with the piano notes you had. Overall, when you strip away the big beat foundations, there's not enough arrangement of the source material going on at all. Even if this passed the arrangement test, something EQed this poorly is just unacceptable. Check out the ReMixing forum for some mastering tips, Jasill, because this needs lots of refinement. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Xenogears_psf.rar - 207 "Gathering Stars in the Night Sky" Looks like I'm caught in a tight spot here. I sincerely believe this could have been riskier/more varied up without Kaijin sacrificing his more straightforward style or the gentle feel, but overall I thought the flow was relaxing and quality. While I don't think it couldn't have taken Tim that long to produce a short piece like this, I really liked all of the changes he made, with the intro, the gentle bass pad and acoustic guitar support underneath the melody, and the restyled chorus section done via the piano. Other judges didn't feel that these variations amounted to much overall, and I would have liked more myself, but that doesn't negate that they were made, even if they weren't dramatically different changes. The R&B beat was cheesy, but yeah, that's how it's supposed to be. I had 0 problem with the bass notes being too high, or any production-related problems, and harping about a fadeout ending is something Prot would typically do. There's nothing criminal about a fadeout. My problem was with the main melody. The fact that it was near-verbatim isn't the real point, since other aspects of the song were changed in what I at least felt was a satisfactory way. What really held me back on this was the fact that coming out of the chorus into the second rendition of the melody from 1:19-1:59, and the third from 2:29 to the end, there was near zero variation in the arrangement from the first iteration of the melody to the second and then to the third. This is a very short piece, yet there were surprisingly no notable changes to Tim's arranged melody that would have contributed some sort of development as the mix moved from verse to verse. Changing up the activity on the second bridge compared to the first was nice, but I didn't feel that was enough. The main melody here was the meat of the mix, yet that clearly wasn't varied enough, with only a light woodwind coming in during the second & third (fading) verse. That's not much at all. What about placing some of the support instruments, like the acoustic guitar, light keyboard, or woodwind, in a more prominent position in one of the verses, or at least trying another type of relaxing lead for one verse; something that would retain the gentle, laid-back approach while displaying some marked development with the arrangement? It's obvious that more could be done with the heart of the piece without, as Tim essentially put it, perverting the general approach of remaining close to the source material. The presence of some substantial development and/or changes in the nature of the instrumentation within the course of the track is all I would need to see this as over the line. This is almost grazing the line for me on account of the subtle changes I noted upon active listening, but in the end anything that intends to stay true to the structure of the original work needs to be more dynamic of an instrumentation upgrade to substantially change the feel of the track compared to the source material. NO (borderline)