analoq

well i doubt someone who clearly disregarded the submission guidelines for e-mailing is going to have the capacity to check the judges decisions forum so i will just make this very short and simple: this mix is not good. no

yeah.. clipping problems, but given the length of the arrangement, mastering this properly is going to be a pain. Also, some off key notes here and there, like at 1:39 ... aarrgghh! Interpretation with the piano at ~4 minutes is suberb, but the rest of the interpretations are too close to the original or too close to the Minibosses. I like the Rammstein-ish bass in 5:40 though, heh. no but if clipping and wrong notes are fixed, then yes.

1 minute? it's 2:15 i think you got the original and the remix confused.

says he's been waiting 3 months... Game: Super Mario Sunshine Title: Isle Delphino's Odd Illusions ReMixer: Nigel Simmons Original Track: (Yes, I had him find a link to the original before I would post it here)

so, none of the people ryan8bit talked to told him that this had bad timing problems? aside from that, the guitar is too loud and just plain annoying at times. There are some cool synth sounds but they are buried by other things. Some parts are very cool, like at 1:20ish and 2:57ish. Bass is tight. But things just are put together well enough, I think this mix would benefit from a resubmit. no

left-panned electric guitar is fake but passable even though it's really reptitive. Piano sounds great. Rest of instrumentation is okay. The mastering job leaves much to be desired. It's not even normalized, has a good 4db of headroom still. Should be brighter and the low end is cluttered, try cutting off everything below 50-60hz. oh well, other than those things this is quite good. yes

nice work here, except there are quite audible mp3 compression artifacts, must be using some awful encoder. Please use LAME in the future, 128 shouldn't sound this bad. anyways, like other have said, this needs to be finished before it's posted on OCR. Resubmit please, this is very cool. no

why do the strings attack everytime? it's really fake. they would sound so much better if they were more legato. Good tempo changes. To restate DC13, it's a little odd having the piano panned hard right. The bell-like sound on the left side (more hard panning?) sounds distorted at points. The lack of interpretation from the original goes without saying at this point, I'm sure. no

This is an okay take on the original and well translated. Drums are nice, bass is very cool, reminds me of that 'Hella Good' song. But the lead sound... is that a FL default or something? I swear I've only heard that a million times before, and it doesn't change throughout the entirety of the song so it hurts the track. And when it's doubled up it sounds twice as uninteresting. Certain sections like the one at 1:05ish are really boring. This is also pretty short too. But it is very loud and bright, which means someone probably spent some time mastering this, good! Overall, an ordinary CT techno mix... nothing really special about it. Yet there's just not enough wrong with it to justify a 'no' ... so I guess I'll pass it. *shrug* yes

better, worse? nah, they're just different. nice work, DarkeSword. cheers.

well, I've given this some thoughts.... I can't get past the performance. I of course encourage the use of live instruments, but not if it sounds bad or if you can't record it properly. And this sounds bad. And was recorded poorly. The alto solo is very good though. anyways, I can't reward the effort of the arranger with a yes when the end product is inferior. It's not really his fault either. But, the only way I could see this being posted on OCR is if it was done on June 15th or whatever day most public high schools start summer. If it was posted on an apt day I wouldn't mind so much, but otherwise... no

I like the intro a lot, but at 0:36 when the beat comes in and the left hand piano dissapears, it sounds very thin. Try keeping the left hand going. Ouch, 0:52 is painful, but cool. Clipping in the left channel in the section starting at 1:36. why did you limit this so hard? loud is good but clippage and thumpage is bad. I like the piano parts. I like the sample & hold noise that comes in around 2:00. I though it was going to get cool after that, but then it ends. Unsatisfying at best. no

Thanks for the link to the original Malcos! You made this much easier for me! this sounds more like a MIDI file than an MP3. Except for the flanged drums. Terrible transition at ~0:48. Inferior arrangement to the original, this is simplified rather than expanded upon. Not that simplification can't have good results, but in this case it doesn't. Overall, this is very amateurish sounding, and thus not for OCR. no

Very cluttered. Umm, what was that at 1:22? A very soft note after what one expects to be the end of the phrase? And again at 1:52... and 2:19... I wasn't able to find the original, so maybe you were following it in that respect. Either way, change it. Because it does not sound good at all. A little short also. no

I really really want to give this guy a yes, the drum sequencing is far superior to anything I could do on my own. I am very impressed with that. The synth guitars range from fake to passable. However I am in agreement with the others, this is identical to the original in most aspects. And also very short. Mix things up a bit a resubmit, I like this one. no

ugh, that is one fake sounding fretless bass sample, compression and eq could help. The rest of the instrumentation is okay, good combination of short and long sustaining patches in the melody lines. I don't think this arrangement is much of an improvement from the original. The way the chord progression was simplified in the first 2/3rds makes this very boring. And the off-key notes at 2:26ish make me cringe, I could not find this motif in the original, so I assume it's GL's idea. Those notes appear ealier too (1:02ish), but they don't sound as bad as they only clash against the bass and not against chords like they do in the 2nd iteration. it's very good, i was going to give it a yes but after listening to it ~8 times I would rather see this improved a tiny bit before going on OCR. no

the drums sound good. if you did them without the use of pirated samples... then good job. guitars are very fake. is this a roland jv/xv synth I hear? The lead especially needs some EQ attention, it cuts through too hard, it hurts my ears. Ouch. after listening to the original, i feel this mix is only enjoyable because the original theme is so enjoyable. as in, there's not a lot added to it, it follows it closely but with different instrumentation, drums, some strings and a faster tempo. you can do better than that... right? no

crash didn't bother me too much but it wouldn't be a bad idea to cut back on it a bit. However... those guitars are terribly fake, the samples and the way they are sequenced also. mechanical and lifeless. Drums sound especially bad too. was this tracked or something? mastering is bad too, it's way quiet. anyways, after giving the NSF a listen this is not a rip from what I can tell. but the quality of the arrangement is limited at best. the NSF sounds more esthetically pleasing. no

Clipping, ouch. Although in your defense, I will say it is difficult to make a piano piece loud without clipping due to the large dynamic range and complex sound of the piano. Even McVaffe's Cutman Sonata has some clipping problems but they are nowhere near as bad as in this track. The arrangement sounds okay so far but the clipping problems and lifeless sounding piano sequencing (use a humanizer?) are not acceptable. no

I was thinking 'no' when I first listened to this, because the instrumentation is a bit lacking, no percussion except for that bell thing for instance, and the mastering is ungood, it's too quiet, even for an orchestral piece and could use some more energy in the higher frequencies. But after listening to the original, it's clear a lot of work was put into this arrangement. I feel it is passable. yes

Game: Phantasy Star IV Remixer: aka The Coop Original Track: Pain Title: "Wounds of the Past" System: Genesis Copyright: SEGA 1994 Original Composer: IPPO (was an e-mail attatchment)

verrry chaotic instrumentation. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the sounds presented. And as a result they don't fit together, everything sounds cluttered. This was originally an S3M? it sounds like it. It was already mentioned the length problems, but what this mix really needs is some coherency. no

umm, I have a pretty high tolerance for off-key and out-of-tune instruments but one can't expect me to give this mix the same amount of attention as I give other mixes that don't have such obvious problems. Off key notes. No redeeming qualities. no

The main problem was already pointed out several times, there's almost no liberties taken with the source material and it's too long/boring. You know what would be cool at around 2:10 when the main melody comes back in? A retardando and then a key change. actually just about anything you could add to this would make it more interesting. And that abrupt ending is rather inappropriate for this style. couldn't you have at least held the chord and faded out? no

The simple square wave sounds do not work for me. I find them pretty repulsive. Yet when the non-NES sounding lead comes in, it's buried by other things. Tempo changes are good, and I just love echoey cymbal work. Overall this is very dull, there's some minor variation on the themes but this track sounds lifeless and cookie-cutter. and, for this to be played in a club you would need a long percussive intro for the DJ to crossfade into. but, that has nothing to do with my decision. no