Liontamer

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)

I live in an apartment, so I don't have a yard, but you're welcome to poop in one of our flowerpots when I'm not looking.

As far as I know, I don't think there's any legal problem with gratuitous sound-clip usage. If we can have "Haunted Hell" and "Fear (Arrakis: Giga)" here, this one can be here as well. I feel pretty solid on this mix, but I'd still like to hear the source material here so I can vote on it. Can anyone hook me up? Edit: OH SNAP I GOTZ IT - http://dl.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?classicgaming/castlevania/mp3/dx-025.mp3 http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sony/ps1/tragic.mid

Unlike with Zelda, where an orchestrated-style version of the Overworld theme has already been used as in-game music and done for countless remixes, hearing "You're Not Alone!" done in the same orchestrated manner is at least a fresh genre choice for the source material. The samples are average but they aren't just flat-out crud, and I was impressed by how relatively well the dynamics turned out. Even though most of the instruments don't sound great, there's at least some meat on all of them and the manner in which they're produced is reasonably humanized. The first 10 seconds of the intro were bleh, but things certainly picked up after that. For those that would crap on the sample quality, I've heard way way worse. It's got a lot of finesse for something with samples like this. Personally, I'd rather hear OMG-by00tiful Gigasamples all day, but Tuba here has made quite a lot out of a little. The ReMixing forum should be consulted so Tuba can hook it up with some higher quality (and free) stuff for the future, but, otherwise, solid work. If this doesn't make it, I'll admit I won't die over it, but I can't hate on this. YES

Damn. I'm afraid Danny B below has it stated pretty well. I definitely heard the stylistic influence of Halo once I fired up the original material. Some of the vox is there, and the drum patterns have the same tempo and style, but nothing in the submission really follows any source tune progressions here. It felt like everything was inspired by 1:09 to 1:59, but this definitely doesn't fit the standards. This would be excellent original game music for, I dunno, Halo III. One thing I've observed about Justin that I like is that he's had both hits and misses with the submission process here yet, at least from what I've seen, he hasn't let any of the misses simply deter him from submitting more material. Personally I look forward to hearing what he'll offer next. I'm sure it'll have a more overt and direct connection to the source material I'll be down with. NO

I would have liked the melody's levels to be more prominant versus the big beat levels, but overall everything was very solid. All of the frequencies were rich and full, so props on the production side. I thought the dynamics on the lead strings were average though, as I listened to the movement from one note to the next. I've heard Star Salzman do a better job using those same string samples. The only thing I felt didn't gel with the big beat approach here was when the melody's notes went higher from 2:43 - 3:00. The energy of the finish at 3:48 was noticeably strong, but 1) that last cymbal hit at 4:23 completely rubbed me the wrong way as the strings were fading out, and then 2) some shrill synth faded in at 4:25, with the track immediately cutting off abruptly. (My copy of the track is 4:26 long. Anyone else have this problem? Maybe we need a fixed cut of the track just for that 2nd thing I mentioned.) I had all those very minor problems with the mix, but those don't undermine the overall quality of the mix. This wasn't as interpretive as the arrangement of "Drop and Roll" at ALL, but I know a high quality genre adaptation when I hear it and this was it. Thanks a lot, Jack, for providing us with the source tune for comparison as well. I wish more people would do that. Hot stuff. YES

I'm not so critical of this piece. There's clearly a lot of potential here. Some of the samples, though reverbed, come off flat, notably in the intro. I loved that keyboard-like support (started at 0:28) that you used throughout most of the track, and the 2:45-3:04 section was particularly good while it lasted. The percussion does need more behind it, but I wasn't bothered by the repetiton at all. Lots of small additions and subtractions helped keep it moving, and the overall energy was nice. The section from 1:07 to 1:25, where those strings were on top, didn't work at all. The strings sounded flat (though reverbed, once again) and the melodic flow of the notes was awful. Same thing from 2:04-2:45 and at 3:24 when the idea was used again. This was a pretty cool submission though, CC, and I enjoyed listening to it for a number of times. Like Prot said, attempting to improve even just one lacking area could hook this up. Perhaps the ReMixing forum could give a few tips on refining some of the sample sounds through further effects and/or tightening up the melody on those synth string sections. I'd love to hear a resubmission. NO (resubmit)

Like Prot said, I definitely liked the intro going up until 1:20. Good stuff. After that, I heard some nice transitions and a few hope spots for actual rearrangement early on, but generally everything for the first few minutes was just source themes with marching drums and orchestral stuff placed underneath it, which is really generic. People have to learn to do more with the Zelda Overworld theme beyond simplistic orchestration. It's been done, and it's been done a lot. Once it got past 4:30 and Robo started rearranging things, I enjoyed this much more. Both Unknown & Nixdorux already have the Zelda orchestral side of rearrangement covered, so ANY Zelda mix in this style's gonna need a lot going for it, including sample strength. Like The Wingless said, I do hear the effort and dedication involved here, but I felt the rearrangement presence needed to be much heavier. Of course, the samples need improvement as well, but I wouldn't YES if the samples were professional. Nonetheless, Robo should hit up the ReMixing forum and check out Greg Kennedy's "Mixing For Free" guide for some sample help. In any case, I'd like to hear something more thought out from 1:20 to 4:30. The rest was pretty commendable, sample quality aside. NO

I loved it. Period.

Kevin Stephens' otherwise-nice FF4 piano medley "Four Fantasies" was rejected 9 months ago for essentially the same problems as this one. Sequenced piano pieces have relatively high standards at this site, since, if a mixer isn't using a real piano, it's really important that the production be humanized with reasonably natural dynamics/velocities. As I can see from the submission letter, the attempt was made, but you can hear that it wasn't sucessful. I really enjoyed this though, Josh. If you dedicate time towards learning how to more effectively humanize this piece and others like it down the line, you'll only be that much more proficient at creating the sounds you want. The ReMixing forum here should have information that could help you out in those regards and/or you could post this in the Works: OC ReMixes forum and receive some feedback and advice via that route or even find people who'd be willing to assist you by humanizing this themselves or even playing the sheet music for you. Blak_Omen has gone that route and achieved a posted submission that way. The arrangement is already what we'd accept, so please consider resubmitting if/when you achieve a more natural sound. NO (resubmit, please)

Boy, this was thin. Both basses had no meat on them whatsoever, though 1:25-2:04 at least sounded decent/promising. And that MIDI choir...yep. Everyone basically covered what was going on here. NO

"Beta version," i.e. "we didn't do anything." God bless you, NO OVERRIDE. God bless you.

Since we can't take 7MB version, we can ask weed for a 128KB version if this actually passes. I thought zykO's guitar work was perfectly fine (Vig'll kill me on that) and featured enough natural subtle variation throughout the 5 1/2 minutes to keep things interesting. Nothing came across to me as grating, and the style's purposefully much more relaxed and loose than a lot of the guitar mixes you'd hear in the community. It was nice listening to the mix and simply focusing in on the guitar work. It's minimalist in the coverage of the source material, but the same issue that the judges had a few months ago with "River City Rap" for example doesn't exist here, IMO. I would have liked to have heard literally any variation in the drum pattern, which otherwise sounded full and provided the beat. As that's generally how hip-hop/rap beats are structured, I've got no problem with it. As for not feeling the rapping, I completely disagree. It's rough around the edges and I'm not oblivious to the minor rhythm issues, but the rhymes are solid as hell, sounding more like a freestyle than meticulously pre-planned material, thus I don't mind all the words not flowing 100% perfectly. Nothing over the course of the lyrics sounded like some sort of jarring misstep. As for the issue of musical repetitiveness, I think the criticism's valid but it's also in part an issue of how well you feel the lyrics hit you since those two elements are co-dependant here. Myself, I enjoyed the lyrics and thereby wasn't bored with the music while listening to them, but that depends on who you are. For me, weed's lyrics have a level of complexity and sophistication that encourages attentive listening. This is raw but solid work on both the instruments and the lyrics; organized enough where I don't feel any of the imperfections are a significant detraction at all. YES

The intro here has some pretty plain breakbeats and that low bass-y synth sounds so gimp, as it's nearly snuffed out by the melody. The lead here is so washed out, and none of the sounds here are clean at all. The breakbeats and underlying percussion hardly vary up, and I also think it's a shame that these beats are so prominent over other elements in the song that you're clearly meant to be paying more attention to; you know, like the actual Shadowgate music. Back to the drawing board. NO

Nice work here, MightyMarg. The overall package is pretty interesting. And though I guess that ending at 3:32 was an homage to the game, boy did it not work. Starting out here with only a few elements in play, the one particularly bad thing I noticed (from 0:00-0:20) were that those exposed cymbals decayed too quickly and sounded completely unnatural. It's a minor point as they fit in much better once the strings came in at :21, but just be careful about allowing something like that to slide. You also can't just use the same sample noise of the same cymbal crash over and over and over and over and over. You get the point. I wouldn't have minded the bass pad being upped as well so it was at least more noticeable. Personally, I didn't like the synth lead used for the "Chill" melody at all. It contrasted too heavily with the rest of the chillout style here. Maybe a little more reverb on it would help (as more reverb is the solution to all of mankind's ills). The percussion pattern could have at least used subtle changes throughout the track to keep this varied up while not disturbing the broader feel. It also wouldn't have been difficult to include some rearranged or original sections of your own that would have fit comfortably within the framework of such a nice downtempo mix. Do whatever you can to break the monotony and enhance the variation. We're pretty much all in agreement that we like the general flow here, but you're gonna need some more ideas here so that this isn't repetitive, so that this provides some rearrangement, and so this possesses some sort of observable direction and movement from start to finish. If you're willing to put in the effort, then we'd look forward to a resubmission. Diagnosis: NO

Hahaha! Damn, yo. This is actually pretty damn funny, in a shockingly bad way. You DO know that the ROBOVoice mixes also displayed some musical talent to go along with the joke, right? Anyway... NO

When I turned 9, we went to a store that sold video game and my mom let my brother and I have our choice of one new NES game. We considered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. After a lengthy deliberation, we decided to go with Chip 'n Dale. Now we all know Chip 'n Dale for the NES was the hotness. But for years, I always wondered...what if we bought TMNT instead? Would I have enjoyed that perceivably cooler game more? The answer...was no. TMNT was fucking hard. The shortcomings with this mix have already been covered. The mastering in particular is non-existent. This is a decent effort on the MIDI side, but I thought the melody actually sounded worse here than in the NES game. Not a good sign. I actually liked the percussion sequencing here. Hell, if this had at least some average samples or live instruments, this would be something to check out, at least to here it a couple of times. But you could say that for a lot of otherwise decent MIDIs. Check out the ReMixing forum here, ilp0, to see how you can improve your game. NO

This is a nice cover piece. The drumbeats were indeed just the same thing looping again, and good job pointing out the bassline, Vig. Go ahead and post this up at VGMix, Mike. It's a decent enough, simple Memories of Green remix (in the general sense of the word remix), and quite a few listeners there will enjoy it. Next time, go for rearrangement please. There's nothing wrong with simplicity, like with the drums and bassline. They can be just as enjoyable to the casual listener as more complex work. But here, such overt simplicity belies a lack of effort in those areas, so please think about ways to give future works of yours more variation there. NO

Intro's not overly engaging; it's actually pretty chill here, but oh man, as soon as you hit 0:11, we've got some phat b33tz [/Wingless]. The "Wind Scene" melody coming in at 0:46 is rather cheesy. It almost doesn't fit the power of these beats, but you quickly get used to it. Up until 0:51, I really liked the subtle levels your strings were at, providing some support and keeping the presence of sound constant while not cluttering up the space. Decent addition of the countermelody at 1:57 (since I heard those notes drop out really quickly instead of fading down), along with the next section after the chorus from the original at 2:19. I wish there was more rearrangement than just your intro and outro which were both rather flat, along with the ending also coming about too abruptly. The Rhodes-led groove is impressive, and I enjoyed the atmosphere created with your noticeable instrumental additions to the source tune. I just need a little more ReMix-level substance than briefly bookending the piece with rearranged material, especially since this is a Chrono Trigger mix. It takes a lot for me to be enthusiastic about a genre adaptation piece, so this is almost at the line. Who knows, I might be the only NO; if this makes it though, I'd have nothing but good things to say about it. Another one I wouldn't think twice about playing on my show that's a genuine keeper. NO (so so borderline)

So much effort...yeesh! That was a hot transition at 2:41 into the robot battle theme, by the way. That was my favorite part of the track. The ending where they yelled "Cataclysmic Clash" and went into the death sound effect could have been pure cheese, but it came across very nicely. Props to Game Over with another winner here. I personally liked this one a lot more than "Little Mac's Confession" as well. Great stuff. YES IT UP

Oh, well I'm SO GLAD I amuse you! Hmmpf. [/haughtiness]

I wish Reu would have at least thrown a little bit of background on this in his submission letter: I first heard this one for the VGF Pimp Section a month ago when it was released at VGMix. It's mislabeled under Street Fighter 1 (unless the Ryu theme originated from there, which I don't believe to be right), but in any case, the actual title of the remix is "Ryu's Theme Song for 4 Pianos," which is why the track is layered the way it is, with one track on lead, one on countermelody, and two on background support. (EDIT: I'll just change the mix title of the thread to the full name, and make Wing's title complaints OBSOLETE! ) Wing's our quality piano guy, and I agree with him all the way on this. The layers of piano sometimes come together in odd ways here, but overall this was a really strong and ambitious mix that featured some much-needed, significant rearrangement of the source music. The last thing we need is a cover of Ryu's theme. Very well made for 1 take apiece on each section, and the deliverly is strong, even if noticeably scattershot at times. Great job, Reu. This is a nice, upbeat offering that contrasts well with your more relaxed work. YES

This is much more of a review than a simple decision. As the non-musician, I feel I've gotta justify my decision with more detail when the product is this promising on the surface. It's kind of non sequitur, but I for the record, I really hated the FF8 soundtrack. Most of the tracks weren't doing it for me. "Breezy" however was one of the solid ones. When you listen to this mix, it's obviously done an exceptional job playing around with the source material and dabbling in different styles. After covering the theme for the first minute (beautiful stuff, even if the mastering's muddy), I liked the essence of the Strokes-like guitar playing that began at 1:12 though the playing was really rough and I got a couple of odd notes/chords. I generally liked the percussion support here, and I point that out because I ended up not liking it throughout most of the rest of the mix. 1:48 featured a transition into some more laid-back guitar work that featured some really sloppy drums and bass that didn't accentuate the lead, but rather clashed with it until 2:25, at which point it seemed to get a lot more coherent and supportive. I really liked the ukulele (if that was indeed what the supporting string instrument was for this area), and while the playing on it was nice, it needed to be brought up in volume. The huge volume change that accompanied the next energetic transition at 2:52 was a little jarring, but the energy was wonderful, and it really picked up nicely here. A lot of the supporting instruments at this area was mastered criminally low, especially because they worked very well to accentuate the flow (except those consistently annoying cymbal crashes, i.e. 3:11). 3:30 moved into a more synth-rock area that was alright. Nothing I personally liked as this was the most noticeable period where you got weird notes galore, but there was at least a lot of energy and 4:11 to 4:31 was exactly the sound and rhythm I was looking for with something like this. When things became more melodic at 4:31 there was a lot of potential, but the piano run from 4:40-4:48 didn't flow correctly. That brief aforementioned section moved into 4:52, where everything abruptly dropped out for a minimal electric guitar finish that I could honestly get used to, even if it wasn't the gradual closure people are used to hearing. This remix is the epitome of raw. The recording was definitely good enough for me, but there were other factors like the number of off-notes and the fact that much of the guitar work needs to be tightened up to help the song have rhythm. Often enough, the freestyle bits at the forefront of this mix seem completely randomized, as if there wasn't much theoretical forethought given as to how a particular sequence of notes would sound out. I wouldn't harp so much on the guitar-playing needing to be tightened up on timing and notes, but, comparing the rearrangement here to the introduction that covered the beginning of Breezy, you can hear that the intro was really well-played and had the notation of the original down pat, so I was a little surprised with how a lot of the mix didn't have a cohesive sound. This is an energetic, kick-ass effort, especially for a game arrangement done with some live instruments, and, while rough around the edges, it's something I wouldn't even think twice about as being worthy of being played on my radio show. But the execution here is just too unrefined, IMO, to make it here. I hate to sound like a prick and go "Oh hey, just spend another week brainstorming how to make this flow better, then get all your equipment and record everything again," but honestly that's what this mix would require for me to pass it. This is some very commendable work, and I really recommend that you submit it to VGMix.com to get this praiseworthy track out to more people and receive more feedback. This could be one of those rejections that casual fans will hate us for, but I'm afraid I've gotta say NO.

Yep, you're absolutely right, bro. I apologize. Let's be friends. You spelled "definitely" wrong, faeg.

First off, lemme point out that the track being remixed isn't NSF file 26, it's NSF Track 4. Second, I dunno what Prot heard, but I definitely didn't hear much variation. Third, this is an alright piece. My mom heard me listening to it and lemme know that she enjoyed it, and it is ok to just chill around to. But this is essentially a slowed down piano cover of the original that goes for two loops with fairly unrealistic-sounding pianos and audience ambiance that doesn't match the comparable crispness of the piano, exposing it as really fake, which is tough if you want it to enhance the mix. NO