Liontamer

At this point, since the arrangement is definitely strong, he'll just be adding back the reverb for the alto sax and piano which was present in the PRC19 version in order to thicken the sound up. Nothing in the arrangement itself is gonna be altered, and I think we'll have to work with the sample quality he's got. Source: http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Black Dream" (ct-3-11.spc) (EDIT: I've had the revised version a couple of hours after I posted the above, so I'll be voting.) Pretty interesting how this mix and Mythril Nazgul's "The 6th Omen" built upon different sections of the same theme. Like djp alluded to, this is a great rearrangement with weak samples. Overall, I felt that bladiator managed to rise above the MIDI construction of this piece with some intelligent rearrangement that really builds well on the source material and gives it a whole new feel thanks to the salsa-y Latin overtones. I thought the velocities on the piano and sax needed to sound more humanized, but I know that Karl played those sections on a velocity-sensitive keyboard. Pretz pointed out to me that the weak samples here may very well have limited how well the velocities came off. djp also felt that the nature of the piano & horn fit well given the genre, and I honestly didn't have any real problem with the dynamics without that explanation. Note to anyone looking to bash us for sample-whoring, repeat after me: we're not sample-whores. But better samples would help manifest the dynamics input that's currently being obscured. The bassline is at just the right level where it capably accentuates the flow, fills up the sound in the back, and doesn't sound either overbearing or obscured. I really wanted to hear more variation in the shakers and bongos, though that seemed to fit fairly comfortably with the genre as well. The winds at 1:52 for the last iteration of the melody got somewhat shrill though not particularly piercing; nonetheless, those should have been pulled back a bit. The reverb really helped thicken the overall sound of this to help the samples not sound as dry and exposed, and made this a much easier decision for me than when it had been taken out in the earlier version. Pretty lively work, quality rearrangement, and rather more capable-sounding sample usage in comparison to, say, "Bottled Metro". Great job, Karl! I'm hoping you check out the ReMixing forum for some free soundfonts and various stuff along those lines. If you ever have time to replay the piano section of this mix on an actual piano (like you said you might), I'd be very interested in how it turns out. Meanwhile, very nice work considering what was at your disposal! YES

Bladiator is in the process of doing some minor revisions on the mix, so I request that you please hold off for a day or three for Karl to do his thing. That doesn't necessarily mean that this will bring the mix into YES territory, but I gave him some suggestions to use since he wrote the mix for PRC19 which he'll be trying to implement.

As much as I hate to seem dismissive with the "it's a cover" rejection, it really is a straightforward medley cover with some easily observable yet overall minimal additions. Select Start's "Kraid's Hideout" had interpretive countermelodic additions to work along with the source material, and this doesn't have anything of the sort to bolster the mix with any truly unique ideas. Prot's decision is pretty complimentary, and I wanted to say the same things he did. The playing is very quality and the production is excellent, but Zoast just need to add more ideas to this to make this a substantial arrangement/rearrangement. Even a solo piano piece tackling this material would need substantial additions to get the job done. I've pimped some of Marshall's material for the VGF Pimp Section over the past summer, so I've heard some of his material, and I like his skills at the moment. So believe me when I say it's only a matter of time until he gets posted here. All things considered though, I agree with Prot's call. Getting a bit more creative via chord structure, variation, improvisation/original sections, support instruments, anything would place your own spin on things in a rearrangement sense. If you don't plan on doing anything like that for this piece, Marshall, releasing your planned trilogy via VGMix as well as a prominent Zoast.com release would be a great idea and could attract attention in the same vein as Stemage's own Metroid rock album, Metroid Metal. This is truly an enjoyable cover piece, but there's not enough interpretation beyond the instrumental choice in order to get my YES. NO

Not sure why the mastering on this sounds so poor; nothing sounds sharp and all of the sounds crud together once several instruments and synths are doing their thing at once (notably from 3:15 until the end). The minimal-style break sections going from 1:26 to 1:59 really meandered a lot, so quite a few seconds could have been shaved off of that for a quicker transition. Otherwise add a bit more substance to those sections. The electrosynth coming in briefly at 2:34 was terribly exposed and managed to clip/distort twice. There it is again at 3:15. It's really poorly used over the top of everything else. Not a bad idea arrangement-wise, could have been a little more creative tackling the melody, but the breakbeat approach was cool for a bit. The production or lackthereof ultimately doomed this one however. NO

DS has got it down. The guitar recording could sound sharper, you need some more separation in the sounds when other elements drop in, and things have to get interesting via variation/development in the composition. By 1:31 of the 2:35 track (when you went into the second iteration of the main melody), I was wondering when the variation is coming and I realized it wasn't. Some additions happened of course (particularly for the last verse), but there was still basically no development. The percussion was also fairly unenergetic, and that doesn't enhance the guitar work here at all. Try to add some more personal style and creativity to everything once you lay down your basic gameplan. NO

Indeed, tighten this sloppy stuff up or go solo piano. Messy support the whole way through. The sudden transition into how the strings wound down near the finish at 2:31 was also a big "WTF?" GC/BE. I wouldn't mind a resubmit as well, but I don't have much faith in how it would turn out given how haphazardly this was assembled. Nevertheless Tao, keep at it bro. NO

The lead guitar work was alright (little too sedate for my personal tastes, but that doesn't affect my vote), but everything else here managed to bring this down. I didn't like the sound of some of the rhythym guitar work underneath the melody (started at :44, but 1:12-1:34 was an exposed example of this), since it didn't sound right in tandem with the lead. The bongos were decent, but the cymbal, tambourine, and (in particular) drum patterns were boring/plodding after a while; the percussion support could have used some variation in the beats or instrumentation at some point to keep things fresh. The string support in particular is pretty exposed moving from note to note, conflicting with the lead at 1:59 with an awkward note transition as well as several other points & needs to be significantly more humanized, and again the acoustic support chords from :44-1:34 also needed to be tightened up since they don't combine well with your lead guitar. These issues I had though really sapped a lot of the potential out of this one and were enough for me to NO. This was a promising arrangement moving things over into an acoustic guitar setting (and not a mere cover), but figure out how to get those support instruments to properly accentuate the material and resubmit. Right now, they don't mesh well and drag the piece down. I didn't hear any off-notes in the Chrono's theme reference (those were fine as Prot said), and the second half was stronger than the first in terms of the notation IMO, but working on these issues would make this an easy YES with a resubmission.

Flat and generic, not unlike many fashion show models. Flat/generic sounds all around, and the percussion in particular is weak. The decently used male vox at 2:05 was certainly a cool idea. Whatever spastic synth came in at 3:13 should have been left out, and its use right near the close of the track crudded the ending. Whatever the arrangement structure could have had going for it was undermined by the sounds. "Bleh" is my honest reaction. Unsalvageable. NO

My view is that if you're gonna use the original verbatim as the foundation, then the additions better be legendary. No chance here. Would have been an easy post on the site 4 years ago. Then we would have likely removed it. More creative additions were there during the second half, but this is the original wearing a coat or some other terrible metaphor. Considering that stuff like FTC's own similarly structured remix of the same theme is available at R:K:O, you could post this mix there and see if anyone likes it, but I still don't see much merit in it by OCR's standards I'm afraid. It's just too reliant on the C64 source material itself carrying the track. NO

Pretty cool, but while a concept (and I stress the word 'concept') like this could make a Square arrange album, there's not much chance for it here when the arrangement is basically the original. The execution would have to be amazing for a viable genre conversion mix. Bad clipping at 1:57/3:13/4:12; hell, clipping probably everywhere listening on an expensive setup. What is up with that off-key support starting in around 2:05? It clashes terribly with what else is going on. Yeah, not enough instrumental clickage or sound balance in here, like DarkeSword said, and the very ending is exposed MIDI goodness. Another GC/BE mix. Good concept...you can finish the rest. NO

Yeah, I remember bLiNd did a MIDI-rip cover of this just for fun, and the sounds reminded me of that to some extent. There's not much energy and not much going on arrangement-wise here. The volume tricks with the lead around 2:27 were a cool idea but pretty awkward in their usage. Yeah, the transition at 3:08 was cool. Should have definitely played around with that sound more instead. Certainly a cool effort for nearly no experience, but this doesn't take the source tune in any new directions. NO

Cool ideas, but yeah, the production sucks. Hahaha. Sorry, but I gotta laugh when it says this is at 192kbps/48khz. A waste of a high encoding. Your voice could also use at least a touch of effects on it. Loved the "FUCK YOU!" up in there at 2:55 though. That's at least good enough for me to ask for a resubmit if you can get this to sound sharper, so I can hear "FUCK YOU!" again. Vocals are often drowned out by the music, and we collectively might not accept something like that, but I'd own that up to the death-metal style, so I didn't mind, even though I prefer to understand what I'm listening to. Delivery is weak throughout. Nice ending. Well...nah, not really. Interesting, to say the least. NO

Good idea, bad execution. Production needs a huge overhaul so that this sounds nothing like what I'm listening to. Potential's there, but you need to tighten everything up and you'd obviously need someone else to produce this for you. The rearrangement doesn't deserve to get so easily rejected, but what else can I say other than that it sounds like a total mess? NO

Not in a particularly talkative mood while judging the weaker stuff from this batch. What DarkeSword said. What Protricity said. What somebody else might say. NO

Original/MIDI + beats. You have "acquired" a NO.

Hate to sound lazy, but there you go, because it bears reading again. Dry, sounds unnatural, and the encoding flat-out sucks. 160kbps? Should have just brought this down to 48kbps if it was just gonna end up sounding like this. NO

Very repetitive, and the second half starting at 2:39 just had wrong notes all over. No energy or proper sound balance here. Bring the melody up and add some meat to these beats for future ideas in this vein. Unsalvagable. NO

Not bad for a laid back approach. The ambient synth providing support was pretty dry and didn't fill up the space like it should have. Shakers never really provided any variation. When the unnatural-sounding wind support came in at 1:26, things mushed into the low end frequencies and crowded things up, so some separation is needed. The mid-range was almost non-existent, and there wasn't much variation or development in the structure. Drum ending was pretty anti-climactic. Some potential in the ideas at least, but a hell of a lot more to go. Dry sounds and a repetitive flow aren't gonna do it. NO

VG Frequency Spotlight: http://www.emory.edu/WMRE/submenus/other/spotlight/vgf.html Radio Link (requires RealPlayer): http://www.emory.edu/WMRE/wmre.ram AIM Chatroom (during shows): aim:GoChat?RoomName=VG+Frequency ("VG Frequency") Ormgas.com Forum: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewforum.php?18 OCR Message Board: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24500 Webspace: http://webdrive.service.emory.edu/users/loji It's almost that time again. VG Frequency returns on September 4th with episode #30 for another season of stupidity with a touch of video game remixes, or preferably the other way around. In any case, I'm looking for good bumpers from various remixers and artists, so any good ideas you'd be willing to contribute are welcome. Short and sweet, VGF is a radio show focusing on the music from the video game music remixing community. Check out the various links above for more information on the layout of the show along with information on past shows. We'll be doing the standard AIM chat again this semester, and a torrent system for the shows is also something I've been looking into along with Shoutcast and/or Peercast, so hopefully things will develop on that front. I'll be trying to do a show covering (some, I can only fit in some) of the good material I heard from this past summer. Provided I have time, that'll be a bonus show that I'll likely record on my own. We'll see, and I'll keep you posted. Thanks a lot once again to the OC Judges panel for selecting me to come on board! If anyone's been following my voting, I believe (but Protricity doesn't ) that I've been doing a good job on that front. My involvement in VGF, notably the summer Pimp Sections, was one reason why many felt I'd be a good person for judging, so thanks again to everybody who have made the show what it is & gotten me up to this point in the community. Hope to see you around as we get underway on the 4th!

3:07-3:20 was noticeably cluttered as two tracks merged, but other than that, solid work. The intro got condensed so it didn't meander around so much, some nice ambiance and subtle support additions were apparent throughout the track, and the beatwork was thickened up yet scaled back noticeably. A very nice revision that takes care of many of the issues. I would have preferred the segue into the piano at 2:19 to start crisp and gradually move into the more muffled/far-away sound, which I thought would have fit more comfortably with the imagery Circles elaborated on in his note to DS, but I didn't mind the sound of the piano since Jim had a good reason to make it that way. Excellent stuff, and I'm so glad you took some time out to check out the suggestions we had and use those to present a more balanced product. Everything works together much better, and I'm glad you came back, bro. YES I'm gonna have to get on the podium for a minute, because I had to say something about how glad I was to get this resubmission. People who have been rejected, most notably old-school mixers, have tended to vilify the judges out of pride/tenure on OCR/reputation instead of taking an fair look at their material and seeing what could be improved. It's not a new issue, of course; it happens periodically. But it's much better when people like Big Giant Circles take a more objective look at a rejected submission instead of seeing people like FFmusic Dj (a friend of mine) and especially Alexander Prievert (who literally got 4 borderline NOs) start immaturely posting & complaining about the website, the judges, or DJP when they could improve and refine their efforts. No one here's trying to shoehorn or homogenize anyone's work; if people would be willing to address the technical and/or structural issues with their rejected submissions and resubmit, I feel that the community, fans, and especially artists all benefit from the acceptance of a stronger piece of music. BGC has a resubmission that he can look back on in time and personally feel more comfortable about, and that's one important goal the panel collectively wants when a mix from either an established mixer or a borderline mix is rejected.

No. EarthBound = Mother 2. Anyway, like he said, the soundtrack is available at SNESmusic: http://www.alpha-ii.com/snesmusic/spcsets/mo2.rsn Good calls by Winter_Stardust on the how some of the areas of the mix sounded like other EB tracks. I could understand the stylistic connections there. The source tune "A Flash of Memory" is very short, but Rellik did a good job taking the one phrase of that theme and rearranging it, making sure to use his rearrangement of that brief material throughout most of the mix. The connection's gonna be tenuous with such a minimal source tune being used and overhauled, so I can see where people are saying "Earfbound??? Where be da Earfbound at?", but I'll vouch for it. Interesting interpretation and a very engaging track. Nice work, Rellik!

LT: Aight bros, I saw this released on VGMix a few days ago with Nex giving Lightwarmth's piece the human touch, so I PMed Luke to hook this collab up with the resubmit. Here's the old rejection & Lightwarth's info: Remixer Name: Lightwarmth (Luke Nickel) Remix Performer: Nex (David Bradbury) Your Email Address: lightwarmth20@hotmail.com Game's Remixed: Final Fantasy IX Song Remixed: Nobuo Uematsu - "Dark Messenger" Remix Title: Lightwarmth & Nex - "Messenger in the Key of Black" Remix Link: Comments: Something I came up with a while ago - a bit far out (classical arrangement of rock song!) but I think it turned out well. Got rejected due to synth, so I here I am thanks to a recording by Nex (ocnex, Conexicon). Enjoy the Remix! ------------------------------------------------------------- Most NOs from the old decision liked the arrangement and thought it was where it needed to be, but also felt the delivery was mechanical. I've heard/kept the first version and played it on VGF way back. If I was on the panel back then, that would have been NOed by me as well. This collab version solves those problems with much stronger execution courtesy of Dave. I thought the reverb could have been toned down, and the piano sounds too far in the back at times, but otherwise great job Lightwarmth & Nex! I'm glad LW didn't let this one fall by the wayside. YES

Yeah, it looks like this one came out for several systems, including the ZX Spectrum. All the relevant game info in the submission letter checks out. No luck on seeing a MIDI anywhere. The Typhoon soundtrack from the Spectrum version is in .AY format. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some may have an issue with the frequent sample usage, arguing that it simply pads the track (as some of the samples chosen repeated too many times), but overall I had no problem with it and the samples did help to enhance the atmosphere of the track. I mentally tuned them out while evaluating the development of the music itself, so those were just something extra; the pilot communication samples do tie the spirit of the track to the game that was remixed though. This certainly sounds like dance-trance (as the ID3 tag implies) and it's not bad, but the overall delivery on this trance genre adaptation could have went in more interesting directions. The stripped down electrosynth section from 1:32-2:33 was a little but drawn out but I saw the merit in it after several listens. The softer area at 2:33-3:03 was a welcome change of pace in briefly changing the flow and moving away from a trance sound. Both areas displayed some good development in the structure of the track and streered things away from getting too repetitive before the Typhoon melody kicked back in at 3:07. This was somewhat cookie-cutter & subdued for trance and not really risky, but the source tune was handled perfectly fine. Areas like 2:05-2:33 & 3:39-4:11 showed very simple original sections that nonetheless connected well with the source arrangement. The mix wasn't my cup of tea personally and it took me dozens of listens to objectively gauge its qualities because the flatness/lack of spirit of the delivery was a huge negative for me. In spite of that, I felt this was a capably structured dance-trance remix even if it wasn't dynamic as a stand-alone trance piece. The Typhoon source usage was good, and, though the trance elements underneath were pretty simplistic and the percussion needed variation, things were full-sounding production-wise and got the job done. YES

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/atari/atari/3D-Galax.mid - Title theme As alluded to in the ID3 tag of the mix, most of the credit should go to Oedipus, who sequenced the MIDI. This doesn't sound bad, but it's just a note-for-note instrumentation of the MIDI that doesn't even change the style much in the conversion. We don't accept these types of tracks here. NO OVERRIDE

Better enjoy the current Pimp Section over the weekend. Getting ready to head back to Atlanta on Monday, so this week's Pimp Section won't be out until after then. Lots of solid material for the prior week though, so hit it up.