halc

never heard the original sub, but I'm not totally sold on the production here. felt really stiff and mechanical to me (despite the writing being fine), and a tad overcompressed. the sounds are a little vanilla and lack realism. I'm prodding pretty hard, though; it's not bad by any stretch, and certainly shows some skill, but minor issues do add up. that said, you've picked an excellent source, and crafted a nice, energetic arrangement of it. the percussion definitely is a strong point. all in all, I think the arrangement makes up for the production shortcomings, so I'm comfy enough to call it a pass. biggest problem for me was the stiff sequencing, so hopefully we will see some improvement in your next sub! YES

what exactly IS the wav vs flac debate? as I see it they're the same thing, except one is 3x bigger and doesn't have metadata.. unless there is some kind of advantage to having wav's that I'm unaware of. doesn't matter to me, I don't listen to lossless anyway, but I'm curious.

good lord, I couldn't remix Virt to save my life. suffice to say, you guys took it on like a couple of champs. the mesh of synths and guitar is smooth as butter, and the sampled solo sounds awesome in the context of the mix. on that note, I didn't have any issue with the sampling, as it was pretty minimal, and given a bit of a mixing boost. felt very appropriate. killer collab, killer mix. excellent work, guys. YES

ha, the intro totally gives me this Linkin Park vibe (crawwwwwwwling innnn my skeeeeeeeeiiiiiin). to keep it short, I think this should have been direct posted. great arrangement, excellent sounds and production, and kickass vocals to boot. I have no complaints whatsoever. YES

outside of the aforementioned minor sequencing issues (trumpet), I have nothing but praise for this. it would fit right into the next MGS game. the arrangement and blending of sources is fantastic, and there's so much dynamic range and expression. epic work here, Evan. YES

nothing to add, this is ace. excellent arrangement, nice sound quality. nice work. YES

those drums sounded pretty muffled to me, and the constant hi-hat patterns were a little distracting, but I imagine that's a personal gripe. agreed with the others that the guitar is just a tad overcooked. otherwise the instrumentation was great. I love the tone of your piano. the various glitching/stretching was well-applied too. I'll go with OA on scooping the guitar a bit, since everyone has mentioned it to some degree. overall, a very cool mix! YES(conditional)

diggin' it. I didn't have any discernible issues perhaps outside of the stuff OA pointed out. I suppose you could call it a bit barebones but I thought there was a nice level of personalization and flourish. a nice track for the morning. YES

ah, came across this one again while browsing Mazedude's homepage.. it's been far too long. this was one of my favorite old-school OCR mixes, and though Maze has come a lonnng way since this, it's still every bit as enjoyable. thank you for this awesome mix.

nice track! very much looking forward to the full album.

OA hit some of the issues pretty well. the recording isn't too pristine and the constant fuzz in the background is distracting. good arrangement ideas. I felt it was running just a bit repetitive, so the heavier bit was a welcome change. cool track, but the mixing and balance need to be polished up. NO(resub)

I agree that the recording quality here doesn't cut it for a solo piano piece. 1:03-2:44 got pretty boring after a few reps, same problem again at 3:11-4:35. the parts are fine, but they just go on for too long. otherwise I was feeling the arrangement. NO(resub)

holy shit, what an awesome mix. I love those retro string patches, and the bouncy bassline entering later. great to see you're still at it, Ziwtra; keep up the nice work!

so, Mr. Heroe, when's your PMD solo album coming out? I think I'm hearing some really light distortion on louder notes, but otherwise I'm digging the tone. as OA said, the arrangement is conservative in nature, but well varied and personalized. I gotta say I enjoy your quirky 9-bit stuff a lot more (who would've guessed? ), but you've shown a lot of versatility in your short time remixing, and this mix only reinforces that notion. nice work! YES

in agreement with my fellow judges; love what you got here, and the live performance is excellent, but it needs more interpretation of the source material. I'd love to hear this one again if you can expand on the arrangement a bit more! NO(resub)

not a lot to add to what the other J's have already pointed out. I like the tone, but the EQ is a bit too dark and muffled for my tastes, and could definitely shine more in the high end. the arrangement is pretty static and needs more momentum; some more expressive dynamic range would definitely be a good step in the right direction. NO(resub)

beautiful performance and arrangement! I think some additional instrumentation could have really set this off, but the acoustic treatment is good too, and the pad support near the end was a nice touch. no qualms here, I enjoyed this mix a lot! YES

right on. i'm in a love/hate relationship with dubstep, but I love the melodic approach; having more than just a half tempo drum loop and obnoxious bass is the first step towards a good dubstep. so yeah, really digging the arrangement. it's a great fit for the source, and adds tons of personalization while keeping the source pretty in tact. well chosen synths and nice automation and attention to detail. I do have a few minor complaints. first off, your wobble bass sounds are huge, but I feel they could have some more oomph in the sub-bass frequencies. the song overall is also quite loud, not necessarily overcompressed; the quality is good, but it's pushing the master really hard, and the high frequencies of your trance lead and crashes were a bit harsh on the ears. of course this easily remedied by turning my volume down a notch or two but when it's pushing that hard at full volume, I feel it's at least worth mentioning. all in all, a solid mix. tempted to go conditional on toning back the highs just a tad, but if the other J's are sold on this, then I am too. YES

this is one of my favorite Zelda tunes, and you've done it great justice. you've definitely established a distinct sound, always full of lush, flowing textures and beautiful color tones. I agree that the beat can get a little repetitive at times, and those killer basslines could've been brought forward a bit more, but overall, I'm loving this mix. nice work. YES

haha, that was pretty cool! thanks for sharing.

as with most of Mazedude's recent stuff, I'm really diggin' it. crazy sound design. there are a lot of weird panning choices, with not much going on dead center, but I think it adds to the charm and gives the piece an interesting sense of space. although the Ragnarok Canyon bassline/progression struck me pretty quickly from the start, the source melodies are a little hard to place. but damn if this ain't a clever, nuanced arrangement, preserving the rhythms moreso than the actual note choices. weird stuff. I like it. YES

not too bothered by the lyrics/rapping, but as far as the backing track goes, I think this is too conservative with the source, and not too far removed from the original chiptune instrumentation. def. needs some more embellishment and interpretation of the source tune. the mixing is is the real weak point here though. the constant phasing/hi-passing on the pulse-wave makes it sound really thin and the super low bass freq's on your bass instrument make it sound slightly out of tune at times. the vocal processing was pretty dry too. I agree that this shows some promise, but it definitely needs work on both sides of the arrangement/production fence. keep workin' at it! NO(resub)

i like the beat, but it's definitely on autopilot, and a little too heavily reverbed imo. I agree that the synths are a little vanilla (I like your glitched out trance lead though, and the subtle bass wubs were neat) and the balance is pretty off too. the focus needs to be shifted more towards the melody, and the backing instrumentation and arps toned back a bit. the arrangement was pretty good, though the ending was a bit of a cop-out, and I agree it's a little heavy on that main arp. add some more variation and maybe some more layers to the drums and polish up the mixing/balance and this should be sounding pretty good. NO(resub)

I pretty much agree with the others here, and OA's judgement was spot-on. nice interplay between the source/original writing, but I agree there's some room for more interpretation on the source melodies. arrangement aside, some additional polish on the mixing/balance could take this to the level it needs to be. please take another look at this one and resubmit! NO(resub)