OceansAndrew

"Baby... I'm sorry.... I never meant to hurt you..." I love the source tune, and the rendition you have here is beautiful, but it is way too undeveloped and short. I think even the source itself was longer. Production was clean and polished, and the performances were awesome, but it's basically the main melody once through and then a brief solo. You'll need to expand the arrangement well beyond this to get it on the front page. To sum it up, I love what i'm hearing, but there needs to be a lot more. No, please resubmit

I am generally feeling the tone of this one, but there are a few things that could be improved. The kick and snare overall feel pretty far back in the soundscape. The mix would be a lot stronger and driving if they were more assertive and not pushed back with the reverb. The opening seconds of the mix weren't really flattering due to the basic 4 on the floor pattern with mushy, over-reverbed drums, but as the mix progressed, it did improve, and once the flutes and tuned percussion came in, it was really nice. The sequencing of the piano was pretty mechanical, but other stuff like the organ sounded pretty good, and the flutes were decent. The arrangement was a pretty cool take on it, and mixed original parts with the source pretty well. If I were to call it as I hear it, i'd say it leans a bit too liberal, but I think it is close enough on source use. Overall this is pretty solid, but a lot of production issues pick away at it. I think if you fixed the kick and snare specifically, and maybe got some mroe texture in early on, this would be a pass. Also, having some more overt source certainly wouldn't hurt. I like it, but it's not quite making it. No, please resubmit

This is a distinct step up from your previous work, and features some cool backing atmosphere and a lot of good layered percussive instrumentation, and some structure and song progression. The arrangement is pretty moody, and though parts are a bit repetitive, the overarching track has a good amount of variety. Transitions were decent, and the sounds chosen blended well together. The sequencing on the synths and piano was pretty mechanical though, and I think the kick could have a little more attack on it. Also there were a few sections that sounded like they were clipping, which would need to be looked at, specifically the thunder SFX that hit with the beginning of a new phrase. Some of the best parts of the brinstar source weren't used, or if they were, were not prominent at all, and that might be something you'd want to tie into the arrangement to improve it. Some of the drum sounds are a little cheapy as well, but when enough of them are layered, it makes it a richer soundscape and masks a bit of the generic sounds. I'd take a look at some of the highhats and adjust the velocities of them a little to give them some more life. The ending was also pretty abrupt, and could have used a stronger crescendo into it. Overall a really solid foundation that just needs a little bit of tuning up in some areas to clear the bar. It's not quite enough to convince me, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if some judges give this the thumbs up. Awesome improvement! No, please resubmit

someone get a mod to keep this n00b on topic. the tag mode is region-free, confirmed by an interview with the creators. Seriously, they could have the game just be Dragon Quest dress-up and i'd still play the shit out of this game. Should I be embarrassed? >___>

Picked this up yesterday and have spent some time on it. It is really fun and cheerful, the graphics are sweet for DS, and the gameplay is classic. I really like that you can make your own characters and name them whatever (my party is made up of OCR buddies ), and I *love* the fact that you can dress up your dudes in different outfits. I haven't done the wifi stuff or anything, but I am totally going to have my DS set to tag mode for Otakon.

POW POW POW POWWWWW that drummer must have arms of granite to do those BRUTAL sidesticks at the beginning. The volume of those is off the charts ridiculous. It walks the line between source and original stuff, but i'm totally fine posting this from a content standpoint. Guitar playing and synths are great, and there are a lot of nice diversions with some quality breakdowns. The fade was a bit abrupt, but the track still works. Once again the drums are the weak point, with overly static attacks in the sound, and decent but not amazing patterns, but the rest more than makes up for it. Yes

I'm abstaining on voting from this one since it's from my project. Good luck Shaun.

Still pretty overcompressed, but a little more reasonable. the first transition was still clunky. It didn't have a prominent drum fill or any indication that the phrase was ending, and the tempo shift wasn't smooth. The first introduction of chip sounds was still really dry. I love the combined sound of more traditional elements and chip sounds, but the end product needs to mesh well, or it just sounds like something is pasted on top. The ending transition was nice, and that section is equally good, but it still sounds like there are 3 separately produced tracks here. I'm sorry to kick this back, because there are a lot of elements that do work, and this is an improvement from the first sub, just based on the reduction of compression, but it's still not there. Sorry. No, please resubmit

There is a sprinkling of source in this, but overall it sounds mostly original. The mixing is decent, but some of the synths are really irritating, mainly the buzzy high one. You have a very authentic happy hardcore sound, but are missing out on the strong transitions and crescendos that makes the genre fun to listen to. There are rises and falls in the dynamics, but it seems like they are done at random, and don't have a proper arc. The track is pretty good, but the structure issues, some of the synth choices, and the overall lack of source nudge it into No, please resubmit territory.

I think the crackles are intentional, but they are exceptionally distracting. I get that you are going for a super retro vibe here, with a heavily sampled sound, but the balance isn't working out quite right, and all of the interpretation (and there is a decent amount) is completely buried. The track is really difficult to remix, as the riff is very repetitive, and getting some meaningful expansion out of it is a large challenge. I don't think it was quite achieved, but you are on the right track This is pretty unique to the site, but the production issues and mixing balance are holding it back, and I would like to hear more melodic expansion. The style you have is very cool, it just needs to have stronger execution. No

I thought the piano sounded just a little too dry for my personal bias, but it was still very nice. There are some very bold colors in the new chords which was jarring at first, since i'm so used to the original, but I found them to be good surprises. Playing was great, good dynamics and flow, and a good ending. The instrumentation is sparse, but the ideas within are more than strong enough to hold up. Yes

Some really good advice from Larry here, the mixing seemed pretty rough and instead of everything gelling into one polished sound, it was like a bunch of different elements were haphazardly stacked on top of each other. There is a good framework here, and I can tell you put in a good amount of time on this. Don't get discouraged, but this still needs a lot more polish before it can see the front page. No

I can pretty much copy and paste Vinnie's response, since though it;s a really solid trance sound, there isn't nearly enough source in the overall running time. The transitions with the filter and gates were sick as hell though. Needs moar source. No

I really like the arrangement ideas on this, but the super mechanical piano and the weak snare is dragging this down a lot. I think making the texture more interesting and varied throughout would help move this one along, but the 2 big issues are the snare and the still piano. No, please resubmit

Pretty solid sound you have, but things are way over compressed on the production side. It starts out pretty vanilla as far as structure, but there is a little bit of interpretation the second time tough, and there is a brief break with some adapted material. Overall it's a little too close to a sound upgrade rather than a complete arrangement, but it is a really good start. My advice is to go further in making it your own, and adapting the melody like you did for the breakdown for more of the arrangement. You definitely have the capabilities to rock out a good remix, you just need to hit the site's target a little better. Production needs less compression overall, but the mixing was decent, and the sounds chosen were great. With some work, this could be an excellent resub. No, please resubmit

I agree with Vinnie here, this is a sick track, but the overt connection to the source is tenuous. Production is awesome, well filled-out soundscape and some great synth choices, strong transitions, and overall good vibes. The source was apparent when it was used, but after 6 repeats, I didn't hear anything hidden away that would be melodic content, so I also gott a give this one a negative. No

The piano sounded a little thin in some parts, but otherwise this was pretty cool, and the sound actually worked pretty well for some of the runs to keep it sounding clean. It is pretty vanilla sounding overall, but the transitions were strong, the playing was good, and it felt like one song. It was a little short, but there wasn't any fat on it, so props for a concise arrangement, but i think even adding a little bit more character would have been ok, in the form of an extended passage or something. It's not blowing me away, but it is very solid and enjoyable, and fits the site's guidelines. Yes

Not sure there is much I can add here, except that checking out the WIP forums here would be a great starting point to get something more polished. You also might want to look into some good headphones that are designed for mixing music to help you get a more accurate sound of the balance. No

I like this source a lot too, excellent choice. It took awhile for the melody to become apparent after the longish intro, but there were little flourishes that made some good connections. The source checks out. I like the arrangement style here, though I think the drums are a little too flimsy, even for the style you are going for. It does tend to run a little long, but it's dreamy enough that I feel the intent, and there are a lot of nice touches that keep this interesting throughout, like the mass filter, and some other cool transitions, so it's definitely not an auto-pilot track. The ending seemed a little dramatic compared to the rest, but I dug it. The strings were crowding the piano a good deal, I think hard panning them left and right would have carved out a lot more space for the piano to shine. The panning on other elements works pretty well, so I think it was just an oversight. Some minor issues with production, but nothing serious enough that it's worth holding back. Yes

a track this short is really going to need to work overtime to develop enough, and unfortunately, this falls short. Larry had some great advice, specifically with sequencing smoothing, and I think you could easily double the length with some interpretive take on the melody for the second half. No, please resubmit

This is a difficult one to judge, mainly because the backing tracks are pretty generic, so it's difficult to determine source. It all checks out as stated in the sub letter, but if I heard this anywhere, i'd never know it was Parappa except for a few clever references in the lyrics. Lyrical content was pretty great; some pretty deft wordplay, an interesting narrative, and some times to the game without beating me over the head. Production was solid, and the vocals were crisp. I think a little more crack in the snare would have been better, but not much else to say, sounded good to me. This one could go either way, due to the source being so vanilla sounding on it's own, but I think the content here is something we can post, and adding my personal bias on, it's a pass for me. Let's see what the other judges think. Yes

Congrats for surviving another year, fools! But I'll have my comeuppance yet! MUHAHAHAHA

Definitely not what I was expecting, but it was very pleasant and well done, with a lot of subtle layers. I think doing something so exposed is very brave, and you had the skills to back it up, so it ended up beautiful. Nice work, and some cool SFX too.

yeah, that works!

option 2 is fine- the audio quality is stereo, so using the line out to speakers is acceptable. GO for it, and rock out!