Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/faxanadu.zip - Track 5 (:00-:24), Track 1 (:51-1:16), apparently 5 or 6 tracks in a medley The piano is incredibly mechanically sequenced. So is the percussion. So are the strings. The xylophone's a little more tolerable on that level, but doesn't seem to quite fit it despite the upbeat nature of the track. The xylo levels could be more subdued if anything. The light choir/vox is also more tolerable since they aren't loud, but that all needs work on humanization. Not much in the way of dynamics here. Cool vox usage at 2:44 & 2:49, as a little side note. The arrangement wasn't too bad by me, but I can't tell where all the source tune use is from. Point that kind of stuff out to us for big medley pieces. Once you learn how to humanize your instruments and get the sounds flowing more naturally, you'll be in a much better position. Digging around your website just now, one guy pretty much told you the same thing, so it's nothing you haven't heard before, honestly. Keep at it, bro. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman1.zip - "Fireman Stage" (Track 7) Harp about lower guitar standards and all that shit, but frankly, this is quality stuff. I agree with Vig that you really need a bass to handle the bassline if possible, and the bassline was too repetitive. Go for a little bit more more with the flanger and wah-wah effects. Cool stuff at 1:33 with the further arranged source work moving into the freeform solo at 1:53. 1:53-2:24 was especially where the repetitiveness of the bassline and percussion stuck out. I realize the drums are sampled and pay homage to the Stone Roses, but absolutely be sure to change things up with the percussion and the bassline to something totally unique there to keep things fresh, along with having additional subtle variation on those throughout the rest of the track. A lot of work was put forth in expanding the source material via the many additional lines of instrumentation and it's duly noted here. Frankly, there's nothing wrong with taking this expansive straight arrangement approach, and I think this in particular has promise as an Hendrix/blaxplotaion-influenced genre piece. Not quite there, as the lead could sound more expressive, but it's certainly getting there. But yeah, what I basically heard was 2 iterations of the source's melody/chorus, followed by the solo, and then a 3rd iteration of the source tune melody/chorus. Add some further original ideas elsewhere in the mix. So to iterate, hook it up with a real bass guitar for a richer bass sound if possible, provide more percussion and bassline variation to keep the backup instruments from getting stale, and add more original ideas of your own to put more personal compositional touches to this. Take the advice of Vigilante (and possibly Danny B & zyko if they comment) on what you can do to strengthen the guitar tone and delivery here. Please RESUBMIT, Henrik. I'm keeping this one. NO (refine & resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ewj2.rsn - "Lorenzen's Soil" (ewj2-03.spc) This does an phenomenal job of taking the foundations of Tommy Tallarico's source material and expanding upon it via the structure of the lyrics. Listening through the whole thing, this is something I feel you can point to and say "This expands upon the ideas of the original composer yet truly takes on an identity of its own." Dan's lyrics have some excellent reverb and delay effects on them and his voice is engagingly melancholy at times. Frankly, I didn't know he could sing until I heard the first WIP of this. Over the course of the track's development, the delivery on the lyrics went from completely sedate to a balance of sedate, mournful and wailing. At times I questioned the change, but the escalation in the mix's intensity from its modest beginnings as a WIP proved to me that this was indeed the right move. Hitting 2:02-2:16, I felt Dan's lyrics were obscured a little bit by the instruments, but were nonetheless very clear thanks to superior production work. weed's rap contribution was also drowned out a little bit by the synth coming from 2:55 to 3:14, but the delivery was otherwise excellent and intelligent per his usual high standards. Excellent rhythm, excellent flows, along with strategically placed vocal layering that thickened things up at the right times. Certainly nothing in the sound balance that you don't often hear in professional/industry-grade work. Very nice work in calming things down at 3:21 with just the bassline, ambiance, and percussion before transitioning into Dan's lyrics with Vigilante's guitar accompaniment at 3:34. I could have gone for a bit more reverb on the lyrics on that go-around for more of that moody feel. Otherwise, everything was top-notch. The last minute of freestyle material from 4:12 to 5:15 was brilliantly rendered, before slowing things down for an eerie close winding down to 5:37. The sounds remained clear, energetic, and expressive throughout for an exceptionally strong finish. The instruments layered together very nicely, the lyrics are very well thought out with strong delivery, and the production is generally crisp and clean. This was hugely expansive arrangement work, and nothing short of A-grade from 3 top names in the community that show pride in what they do. Props to Dan for working hard on this mix in the past few months and enlisting Jesse & weed in helping to bring it to what I genuinely consider superlative status. You'll loop it. And believe me, you'll love it. YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/tmnt.zip - Track 2 This doesn't sound terrible. The sounds are basic, but the production isn't bad. However, we have standards here. If everyone submitted remixes that clocked in at 1:23, 99% of them would be rejected for being underdeveloped ideas. That merits a NO right there. However, you also cannot fashion a remix simply by taking the melody, altering the instrumentation and then placing a new percussion underneath it. There was some freestyle-ish work from :33 to :48, but that was it. Everything else was the original melody plus new beats. We do not accept that type of material here. Since you don't seem to understand our submissions guidelines, feel free to read them sometime. NO OVERRIDE

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/SaGa_Frontier_psf.rar - 216 "Alone" Good use of rain effects and reverb to give the track a solemn atmosphere. The melodic line you used at 1:05 is just verbatim with the source tune itself at :28. Though there are areas of originality, the structure ultimately holds too fast to the original. At least you get some light piano underneath to expand things at 1:57, but in any case, this is structured way too closely to the source. The tempo is identical, so it's potentially/likely ripped. Not a poor cover, mind you, but it's not what we're looking for according to the standards. Some of the samples, particularly near the end, could sound stronger, along with the piano solo from 2:42 to 3:07 needing to sound a LOT less mechanically sequenced. Work on naturalizing some of the sample use, add more variation in the percussion, bring up the volume levels a bit, and introduce even more original ideas to complement the source tune coverage. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "At the Bottom of Night" (ct-3-03.spc) Heh. Mid Night. Nah, wait... Things are pretty basic on the straightforward arrangement route for nearly the first 2 minutes of this 3 minute mix. I like the subtle synth work here, but initially didn't like the feel created by the vibes (or xylo) coming in at 1:27. They sound a bit more complementary a few seconds later. 1:54 had material placed in tandem with the source tune along with some decidedly more expansive arrangement right after that at 2:15. These promising ideas should have come in earlier. Though I liked the subtle arrangement here, really up the creativity on the first 2 minutes of arrangement with some additional ideas, and absolutely do what you can with the velocities and sustain to get things sounding more natural & expressive and make dynamics a positive contributor here. I'm a sucker for the source tune, sure, but I sincerely liked what I heard so far, LAOS. NO (rework & resubmit)

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/smrpg.rsn - "Hello, Happy Kingdom" (smr-112.spc) The lead synth at :06 is very unappealing. That really all I can say about it. Broadly speaking on the whole mix, the juxtaposition of sounds is unbalanced, the instruments sound too fake, the structure is VERY haphazard & messy, and the background synths and percussion never change their patterns. To be frank, it's not very engaging listening, Dan. Sorry, bro. Keep at it. Just not with this one. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dq2.zip - Track 3 Ah dammit, I initially thought the build-up was cool, then this TAME wutevar sound came in at :58. C'mon, bro. Spice it up, Burgertime style. Dammit, by 2:00 this is STILL going. I wanted to pass this. [/checks the NSF] Intro's not overtly inspired by any of the tracks. Over half the mix is original material. That's already a no-go. Almost a non sequitur transition to the orchestral strings from 3:19-3:37. Not bad trance arrangement or anything, but it's not very interpretive with the source here, and there's no separation of sounds here, so it doesn't pass on production either. Too bad, bro. Enjoyable piece, but this one's academic. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Gonzalez's Song" (ct-1-07.spc) It's a nice homage mix. It honestly sounds good. Post it over at the OneUp Studios boards cuz they'll enjoy it, like I did. But... 1) You repeat the same lyric over and over again while not changing the style, which "Team Gato" did... and 2) "Team Gato" already did this better. It doesn't get any simpler to me than saying "Add more ideas to this homage." NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/wreckcrw.zip - Track 1 Yep, most of the time this doesn't expand on the original. Decent effort to use the NSF stuff and fade it out as you placed the focus on the piano, but other than that Vig's concerns are all valid. Punch up the volume of the trumpet you sparingly used. Decent use of the in-game SFX though, as well as the stereo effects. The percussion is a little too dry, and those piano stabs need some work, bro. Keep at it. NO

For any interested parties, Sam sent me the following message for the panel. Thanks to Sam for being courteous with the results of the judging. Maybe he'll have a chance to post the mix over at VGMix in the near future so others can enjoy it, as well as possibly revisit it way down the line. In the meantime, we haven't officially received Shna's next submission yet, but it'll be on the way to the panel in the near future, so you haven't heard the last of him!

VGF #35 generally covers the goings on from Oct. 3rd to the 9th. You can also check out the playlist at my Ormgas.com forum and leave comments. Buy a copy of the episode from me for $0. VG Frequency #35: Red Suckas Larry Oji - WMRE (Emory University Student Radio; Atlanta, GA) Friday, November 26, 2004 / 2:25 - 4:37 AM EST Liontamer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Jared Hudson - VG Frequency "JHX Soundtest" Bumper 2. Jerry Martin - "South Bridge" [simCity 3000 OST] 3. Darangen - Chrono Trigger "The Depths of Isolation" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (September 2004) / VGMix2 #2434] 4. Beatdrop f/MC Mouse the Mighty - Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix "Dazed & Destroyed" [VGMix2 #2436 / OC ReMix to-be-posted] 5. Fatty Acid - Final Fantasy 10-2 "Under a Full Moon" [VGMix2 #2454] 6. Jerry Martin - "Central Park Sunday" [simCity 3000 OST] 7. House the Grate - Final Fantasy 4 "Waltz of the Dolls" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (September 2004) / VGMix2 #2443] 8. Roggah - Doom 2 "Demons from Hell" [http://www.roggah.net] 9. SuperGreenX - "Crowdpleaser" [http://www.supergreenx.com] 10. Jerry Martin - "New Terrain" [simCity 3000 OST] 11. zykO - "heavy" [bipolar me] 12. Shane Barnes - Donkey Kong Country 1 "Gang Plank Metalleon" [VGMix2 #2452] 13. BrainCells - Ninja Gaiden 2 "Let the Wind Flow" [VGMix2 #2459] 14. Jerry Martin - "Power Grid" [simCity 3000 OST] 15. Corran - "Armageddon" [City of the King] 16. Jerry Martin - "Urban Complex" [simCity 3000 OST] 17. Akitaka Tohyama f/Kenji Niinuma - "Getsu to Oji" (a.k.a. 'The Moon & The Prince') [Katamari Damacy OSV] 18. Darangen - Donkey Kong Country 2 "From Within" [VGMix2 #1988 / OC ReMix #1249] 19. Bladiator - Kirby's Dreamland "Chopinesque Kirby" [VGMix2 #2464 / OC ReMix #1257] 20. Jerry Martin - "Magic City" [simCity 3000 OST] 22. Ryan8bit - Marble Madness "Sweep Up the Broken Pieces" [Dwelling of Duels: Free Month (September 2004) / VGMix2 #2187] 23. Jerry Martin - "Oasis" [simCity 4 OST] 24. Jerry Martin - "Night Life" [simCity 3000 OST] 25. Feel - "Nishi He" (a.k.a. 'To the West') [Aka Complete Edition OST: Primitive] 26. zykO - "the door" [bipolar me] 27. CarboHydroM - Super Mario Kart "Secret 1000cc Mode" [VGMix2 #2449] 28. djpretzel - Secret of Mana "Tidal Sequence" [OC ReMix #1250] 29. Jerry Martin - "Updown Town" [simCity 3000 OST]

VGF #34 generally covers the goings on from Sept. 26th to Oct. 2nd. You can also check out the playlist at my Ormgas.com forum and leave comments. Holler if you'd like a copy. VG Frequency #34: Inferiority Complex (She Likes a Turkey) Larry Oji - WMRE (Emory University Student Radio; Atlanta, GA) Thursday, November 25, 2004 / 11 PM - 1:10 AM EST Liontamer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Star Salzman - VG Frequency "WMRE Jingle" Bumper 2. Corran - "The Trials Begin" [City of the King] 3. virt - "light chase lab" [http://www.hellven.org] 4. Makke - Crazy Comets "Komet Non-Stop" [R:K:O #1471 / OC ReMix #936] 5. Jeremy Soule - "Introduction" [secret of Evermore OST] 6. Daknit, Bard of Tarot & Eric Dude - Resident Evil 2 "Lost Sanctuary" [OC ReMix #431] 7. zykO - "it's alright" [bipolar me] 8. The Wingless & Aurora - Super Metroid "Skin" [http://www.thewingless.com] 9. Jeremy Soule - "Greek Temple II" [secret of Evermore OST] 10. Red Omen - VG Frequency "Friendly Suggestion" Bumper 11. xerxes - "eclipsed" [http://www.hellven.org] 12. Quinn Fox - CastleVania 2 "Modern Problems" [VGMix2 #2383] 13. Blizihizake - Donkey Kong Country 2 "Set Sail" [VGMix2 #2361 / OC ReMix to-be-posted] 14. Jeremy Soule - "Pirate Theme" [secret of Evermore OST] 15. Dev - Dark Cloud 1 "La Saia's Resting Place" [OC ReMix #857] 16. E-Bison - Chrono Trigger "Time Management" [OC ReMix #998] 17. Nixdorux - Gargoyle's Quest "Gargoyle on Broadway" [VGMix2 # 2026 / OC ReMix #1248] 18. Jeremy Soule - "Horace" [secret of Evermore OSV] 19. Paige calls in and let's everyone know what it's like to date Larry, who's obviously cool because he listens to video game music, yet not as cool as Star Salzman, who actually makes music; Hey, who the hell is she dating anyway? 20. Unknown - VG Frequency "How Was That?" Bumper 21. Yuzo Koshiro f/The Shinsei Nihon Symphony Orchestra - "Birth of the People ~ Offering" [symphonic Suite from Actraiser] 22. Sound Team JDK f/Kentarou Haneda - "Chapter 1: Feena ~ First Step Towards Wars ~ Palace" [symphony Ys] 23. Jeremy Soule - "Dark Castle" [secret of Evermore OST] 24. Hideaki Kobayashi - "Tricktrack Part 2" [Phantasy Star Online: Songs of Ragol Odyssey OST] 25. Mustin f/William Reyes - Super Mario Kart "Racing Rainbow Road" [VGMix2 #2385] 26. zykO - "lethargic" [bipolar me] 27. Jeremy Soule - "White Castle Town" [secret of Evermore OST] 28. SgtRama - VG Frequency "Eat A Bumper" Bumper 29. Shnabubula - CastleVania: Harmony of Dissonance "Blood Descendant" [VGMix2 #2406] 30. Reuben Kee - Final Fantasy 8 "Another Successor" [VGMix2 #2405] 31. Star Salzman - Super Street Fighter 2 "Fei Longer" [VGMix2 #2387] 32. Jeremy Soule - "Greek Temple" [secret of Evermore OST] 33. Puffy64 - Zak McKracken & Commando "Zak MCommando Kracken" [R:K:O #631] 34. Jeremy Soule - "Menu" [secret of Evermore OSV]

http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/dkc1ost.rar - "Simian Segue" (dkc 02 simian segue.spc) The beginning's kind of awkward, but the timing gets more comfortable at :10 and you can see where this is going. The pace is deliberately slow, almost plodding, so some people are gonna be turned off by this. Despite how I like the reverb filling the space up, there are some brief points where the mix feels a little too empty (:40-:43, :46-:49, 1:20-1:24). At :38, and especially :48 when you punched it up, the organ used as backup has some odd notes that don't really fit to me. Ohhhhh, at 1:35 you retread verbatim. BAH! I literally went "Why?!?" at my screen at 1:58 as you hit the opening melody again. Kind of ironic, since I asked you yesterday "Is it still repetitive?" and you said yeah. So 1:35-2:31 just copies what you had in place before. Some embellishments or added instruments wouldn't have hurt to show at least some development over the course of the track, especially since the tempo is never gonna change in order to stick with the genre here. I did like the trombone slides you were telling me about that you put in from 2:31-2:41, but they would have functioned better if they had been louder. Sweet idea, Chris, but too subtly applied. The abrupt cutoff + fade-in technique at 2:56 is very poorly done compared to the old version. The old version didn't have as noticeable a hiccup. Whatever effects you were using to fill out the sound made things louder and affected how jarring the cutoff sounded. It sounds like the file broke. The music also literally cuts out as it winds down at 3:22 (along with some really low cymbal tap at 3:24 for no apparent reason). Gotta clean these little bits up, especially since they negatively affect the finish. I don't wanna look as if I'm bagging on this. The groove established is nice and laid back, the bassline is good and the samples here are used pretty well, but I primarily need to see some development occur from 1:35-2:31 with the use of more or different instruments as well as have some of the other minor issues looked at. This'll make a good genre piece here, but this needs some additional arrangement substance to push it over the bar, not just the well-done production refinement that you have here. Sorry, bro. NO (revise & resubmit)

So I've got VGF #33 all done. Hope to get up later tonight and do #34. Again, the webstream went down this morning, so these'll all be done sans internet audience. Frankly though, it makes the editing a LOT easier/quicker with no call-ins, so I suppose I can't complain about that. For memories sake, here's a copy of the chat transcript when VGF #33 was originally cancelled! And while it's mostly me talking to myself, here's the current chat transcript for today's retro episode. This ep clocked in at 2 1/2 hours and 105MB, so enjoy. The playlist is available on the previous page, and at my Ormgas.com forum.

Ha, so the actual computer running the stream froze this morning, so I'll just record the shows myself during the break and release 'em. That's life for ya. Happy Turkey Day!

Get in touch with him and ask him about it. EDIT: I sent him an e-mail along with the decisions so far, so we'll see what he says.

On this late night as I chill around Emory for Thanksgiving break, I have the opportunity to do a bunch of the retroactive shows I had planned. To start making up for the 8 weeks I missed, I'll be doing at least one show on on each day for the rest of the week. Whatever I don't get done with now will be done arouind finals time. First on the chopping block is VGF #33 sometime Wednesday afternoon, covering activity in the community from September 18th through the 25th. Yeah, it's fucking late. What do I care? I'm on break. And YES, I would start earlier, but the 12-2 AM DJs are coming in. Before you start going, "Bah, September is old shit", let's show you what we got on tap, since it's all ready. It's quality shit: 1. Rayza f/Liontamer - VG Frequency "Number One Host" Bumper 2. Yumiko Kanki - "Opening Theme" [F-Zero OST] 3. The Unsound Method - "I'm Psychic" [http://lobachevsky.homelinux.net/~sriley] 4. Awesome-A - Apprentice "The Sadness" [AMIGAremix #120] 5. tefnek - "warm sky" [http://www.tefnek.com] 6. Yumiko Kanki - "Silence" [F-Zero OST] 7. zykO - VG Frequency "Keep It Real" Bumper 8. zykO - "gravity" [bipolar me] 9. Christian Pacaud & Joecam - "Lost Without" [http://www.soundclick.com/christianpacaud & http://www.joecam.net] 10. Binster - Gauntlet 3 "Blue Wizard is About to Die" [VGMix2 #1941] 11. Joshua Morse - Double Dragon 3 "J! Groove" [VGMix2 #2365] 12. Yumiko Kanki - "Red Canyon" [F-Zero OST] 13. Darangen - Chrono Trigger "The Fall of Zeal" [VGMix2 #2316] 14. Sefiros - Final Fantasy 7 "The Planet Weeps" [VGMix2 #2077] 15. JAXX - "Life of Wind" [http://www.trulyradical.com] 16. zykO - "aurora" [bipolar me] 17. Yumiko Kanki - "White Land I" [F-Zero OST] 18. smh vs. OverCoat - VG Frequency "Major Lesbians" Bumper 19. Kailem - "Desert of No-Place" [http://tenoranges.zor.org] 20. Shnabubula - Final Fantasy 9 "JAZZ PIANO" [VGMix2 #2273] 21. Freemind - "Melancholy 3" [Melancholy] 22. Kevin Stephens & Patrick Waters - Fire Emblem 1 "Etude for Piano in F# Minor" [OC ReMix to-be-posted] 23. Yumiko Kanki - "Fire Field" [F-Zero OST] 24. Blak Omen - VG Frequency "Best In Chinatown" Bumper 25. Reuben Kee - "A Hero Enters" [immortals: The Heavenly Sage OST] 26. SuperGreenX w/Aurora - "Deep Breath" [http://www.supergreenx.com & http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umfisico] 27. Yumiko Kanki - "Port Town" [F-Zero OST] 28. Junichi Nakatsuru - "Unwavering Resolve" [soul Calibur II OST] 29. Yasuhisa "Yack" Watanabe - "Doubt" [Metal Black: The First] 30. Kevin Riepl - "Hyperblast Redux" [unreal Tournament 2004 OSV] 31. Naoto Ishida - "Big Blue" [F-Zero OST] 32. OverCoat - VG Frequency "Makes Me Question" Bumper 33. Joshua Morse & po! - "Bean Love" [evolve] 34. Awesome A - X-Out "New Highscore" [AMIGAremix #131] 35. BrainCells - Megaman 1 "CutMetal" [VGMix2 #2245] 36. Yumiko Kanki - "Mute City" [F-Zero OST] 37. BrainCells - Super C "Against the Rest" [VGMix2 #2320] 38. JigginJonT - VG Frequency "Be As One" Bumper 39. Bladiator - Chrono Trigger "Woman in a Black Dress" [VGMix2 #2343] 40. SuperGreenX - "Composer" [http://www.supergreenx.com] 41. Lloyd Banks, Eminem, Nate Dogg & 50 Cent f/DCT - "Warrior, Pt. 2 (Resilience Mix)" [http://www.thebigshot.com] 42. DCT & GrayLightning - Astyanax "Journey to Remlia" [VGMix2 #1460] 43. Yumiko Kanki - "Select Time Theme" [F-Zero OST] 44. Yumiko Kanki - "Zoom" [F-Zero OST] 45. Yumiko Kanki - "Lost Life" [F-Zero OST] So, be there if you can and ruin your sleep schedule. Webstream or no webstream, listeners or no listeners, I owe it to the principle of my show to get these make-up shows complete and released. Hope to see your around for some of them. At least #34-#36 are coming every day throughout the rest of the week followed by #42 on Saturday. Yeah, don't try and think too hard about it...

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Jib Jig" (dkq-05.spc) Nicely done original work to open things up before being followed by the arranged source tune at :47. Well, no need to really go the play-by-play route. The orchestral judges can give you tips on any of the finer points, but both the arrangement and performance are excellent to me, and really do make the most out of your sample weapons of choice. I did feel that you got optimal results with what you had at your disposal. The layering of instruments comes together to create a full sound, and the adventurous, seafaring motif that I felt "Jib Jig" merely alluded to is admirably expanded upon. On the nitpick side, this is mastered pretty low; the overall volume level could be higher. I also thought the strings could have had a bit more presence relative to the other instruments. Like from 2:31 to 2:48, the violin lead could have been more prominent, but again it's a nitpick, relatively speaking, and just a subjective comment. There was excellent dynamic contrast via the shifts at 2:48 & 3:02 to escalate things. I think the intensity level from 3:12 to 3:45 could have been even greater in order to really go out strong for the finish, but overall I have no complaints. I certainly hope you'll keep trying out other genres, Blake, to keep exploring new ideas. You've got the orchestrated stuff down pretty well, though, and you've come such a long way since I first met you through my show. You kept up the work on this one for quite a few months, really applied the feedback and criticism you got via the WIP forums, and produced these solid results. Every up-and-coming mixer should have that level of commitment and follow-through on at least one project. Yours is a great example of using all of OCR's resources to get the job done. The production is intelligent, the project illustrates what an aspiring mixer is capable of via free samples, and the arrangement intelligently realizes the potential of the source material. All things considered, this is a first mix you can be proud of. Respect. YES

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Chrono Trigger" (ct-1-02a.spc & ct-1-02b.spc) Everything up until :50 is decent on the rearrangement side, but then things got way too liberal without any tangible reference to the source material until 2:18. These sounds are trademark ones from Jovette, but for whatever reasons, the sequencing is mechanical & lifeless, and the production is empty & sparse. It sounds like there are practically no effects used here in order to give depth to the instruments and fill up the space. The production is terrible; it's quiet, dry, and the piano during the first 2 minutes and later around 3 1/2 minutes should have been in the forefront instead of being so muted. Half the time, the sound balance is just plain bad. Dynamic contrast isn't there at all either; just slow and plodding the whole way. No offense to Jovette, but this was really disappointing. It's like there was no post-production put into this. This was truly the epitome of WIP. Try and get :50-2:18 to not sound so liberal without at least some more overt Crono's Theme referencing. I doubt you'll try to humanize the instrumentation, but seriously beef up these sounds with effects and processing. I'm a fan of "Dové L'Amore", but you seriously need to learn how to step things up on production or you risk being passed by the proverbial bar. Bring your A-game, please. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/iog.rsn - "Memory" (iog-17.spc) Not sure if the mix uses more stuff from the game than the above, but it doesn't really matter. I recognize some of the drumloops from BenCousins' "LostWoodsSouthCentral". God bless whoever made that loop, but it's pretty stock stuff. The wind on melody is too mechanical sounding, and has a lot of reverb on it. At places when it (abruptly) cuts out, for example :26 & 4:04, all of a sudden the track gets very empty-sounding. The way the melody sounded at 2:12 felt odd with the note progressions. I felt there were enough changes here so that the flow changed up a few times, but none of the sections came together cohesively anyway. 1:11-2:00 & 2:12-3:00 in particular had poorly thought-out sound combinations, and each section tended to drag. Better luck next time, bro. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/zelda.zip - "Title" (Track 1) & "Ending" (Track 2) Damn, too bad. Yeah, this needs more going on with the melody as well as the percussion work in particular. Not a bad idea for the ending. You know, using the...Ending. More variety in the performace, please. Too bad though; if this was 4 years ago, this would have been a shoe-in. If the support instruments had more going on, I could at least pull for it on some level, though you need a lot more variety applied beyond that. Cool genre idea though. Throw this up at VGMix and get your band some additional word-of-mouth. Feel free to resubmit after some more development if you guys are willing to do that; we could use a quality surf remix. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/metroid.zip - Track 3 Seriously, don't go that low-fi with the drums. I don't know how that would come across as anything but a very obvious disparity in sounds quality here. Frankly, I really liked the arrangement of the melody when it was there. Straightforward and sparse though, aside from changing the notes a little. The crashing wave were nice, but still didn't work well as a transition point to the following brief section (which actually sounded too much like the DKC Game Over jingle). This got too reliant on the wave sounds to close it out and was too sparse on the arrangement work. You gotta be more. Keep on truckin' with this one. NO

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Chrono Trigger" (ct-1-02a.spc & ct-1-02b.spc) & "Guardia Millenial Fair" (ct-1-06.spc) For giving me such ear torture this batch, I'm shouldn't giving djp anything remotely usable to quote. Thus, I'm gonna intersperce my words with l33tspeak. Thi5 was 2 awesome. Jar3d did @ great job 0verhauling th!s fro/\/\ d4 /\/ear-\/erba7im Chr0n0'z t|-|eme cov3r "Generations of Time". Seriously though, the rearrangement here is A-grade, even though the ending vox was [does a so-so hand gesture] and 7/4 Millenial Fair was DarkeSword's idea first! This is true crossover level material. If you wanna break a non-VGM fan a remix and see if they like it, this is certainly one you could try on them. Glad to see Jared's back with a new mix as this'll hit the n00bs in a big way. I smell Grammy! Well, a Latin Grammy, but that's still a Grammy... YES

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/dq4.zip - Track 14 This one tied for 4th in Dwelling of Duels for May/June against some stiff competition. I'm always glad to see DoD material make it's way over here. I covered this one in early July for VG Frequency. (For anyone that'll agonize over it, the JAXX mix I was talking about is available over at VGMix.): Like Vig said, this was excellent rearrangement with a few flubs (:51 was particularly noticeable) that didn't detract from the strength here. Great sound choices throughout that fit together well and kept the ideas fresh. The orchestral stuff moving over into the rock work was all excellent. Started off very solemn, escalated via the orchestral builds along with the percussion just after that, and then got into what represented a much louder representation of agonized grief with the guitar work before winding down. The structure was pretty natural given the inspiration. Ryan's a guy I feel we don't see enough of at OC, so I'm really glad he submitted this one. Sorry it had to come about under such circumstances though. Hopefully people will know the story behind it and, on that level, appreciate the emotion put into this. YES