Gario

D'aww, no sub from me. I dunno, I just wasn't feeling like I wanted to submit that one. Eh, people can always go on my Newgrounds account and find it there, if they want to compare. Actually, I don't submit too many tracks - I suspect if I did I'd have quite a few that would be waiting to be posted (rather than one, probably another on the way when the panel gets it). Oh well, this was a fun match-up, when it happened. We actually had a similar style going with our chippiness, though yours was certainly bouncier. The arrangement was alright for your track (personal preference to my own, though; I guess you can't blame me, lol), and the production was really great. I'm glad to see this one up here - it was a very fun track.

Wait, Arch Enemy is on the soundtrack for this?! Fuck, now I actually kind of want to play it.

Even if you don't finish, you can do what I did for the FFVI compo and slap an ending on what you have so far and submit it, then finish it later. It sucks when it comes down to that, but it's better than a blank submission (despite how the submitter may feel about it, the listeners always appreciate a submission, even if it's incomplete). Maybe it won't come to that, though - you still have one day left, so best of luck.

Yeah, I was thinking of adding the flourishes to the melodic line. Grace notes, a trill here and there and some additional passing motion would be enough, I think.

Well, I'll put it to you this way - with what I've got now (minus the flatulence), I can safely say that if you were not on the receiving end of this track you'd enjoy it quite a lot. In other words, it's coming along great.

Well, as expected this is turning out to be the most interesting track that I've made for the compo, so far. Interpret that as you will . Also, I'm not nearly bored with my source, yet. The Street Fighter compo I was getting burnt out on my choice, but this time around I have a whole lot of ideas yet to be incorporated.

Saying that this objectifies women is like saying Blazing Saddles is racist. It goes so far over that line that it's impossible to be offended by it.

I have one single sound produced. It is an awesomely amazing sound, but it is a single sound, nonetheless. It's a pretty perfect sound, though, and I bet everyone will know what that sound is when they listen to it. So my mix is coming along exactly as I planned it - rushed on the last two days, built around a very particular thing. It's kind of how I work.

MOD REVIEW: Lowering the song a semi-tone actually makes it sound a bit richer, in my opinion. I like that change, and it's not like people will notice if this gets posted, eh? The piano does sound considerably more human in this version (I'm hearing more variation in the one particular part that I mentioned earlier, so nice work). For the sake of OCR, I think it's humanized enough. I could still imagine it better, but that's just the pianist in me speaking - you've done well bringing it up. A small point about the last section of the track, though; it's a touch too repetitive, for my tastes. You do change it up from the first section a little bit, but there are a few melodic parts that repeat the first section note-for-note that stand out in a monotonous way, for me. It'd really just be a matter of adding trills and maybe some grace notes (and perhaps an improvised line rather than the source melody, too) to fix that issue in the last section, though. I'd recommend adding a few of these flourishes to it before submitting. Fortunately, that's all cosmetics and generally quite easy to do, so that shouldn't be too much trouble (in comparison to more humanization, at least). Other than that, I'd give it a pass for OCR. Add some fun little piano decorations to the last section and send this one off. Nice work, and I hope to see this one on the front page.

Hey, was my vote confirmed or not? I just.recieved two e-mail messages both stating that my vote was confirmed and unconfirmed. Could you confirm my vote for me sometime in the next few hours?

lol, I can feel you on that - I've gotten to that point on more than one remix. This is sounding much better, though. Soundfont-wise it's not that bad, really. I do still hear the issue I was hearing before to a smaller degree, and to be perfectly honest it's not really a sample issue that you're having. You could use the best samples ever and if you don't emulate phrasing and such then it'll still sound like a sample. Taken in a vacuum, this does still sound pretty good, so don't lose sight of that. I still enjoy it, overall, but coming from a (former) pianist I just can't get around the lack of emulated touch. If you don't want to work on this one anymore, I'd say give this one a shot and try for a submission - I tend to be quite picky on posted piano music. I mean no offense to Willrock, but I would've made close to the same statement to his piano-only remix back in 2010 (samples feel like they all have the same type of attack, and sound mechanical on that front), and it passed, so... *shrug*. If you do want to give this a little bit more love on something that seems less ethereal, those arpeggios could use some more variation in dynamic difference - while you have swells and dynamics, and those are great, it often feels like with those arpeggios that the changing dynamics often move through a cycle. It's most noticeable in the beginning and end portion of the song. It's up to you, though; as it is, this does have a chance at passing. Just understand that the judges might call you out on the issue I presented. If you're feeling burnt out on it and want to move on, I suggest submitting it. If you still feel like tweaking it a touch, then the dynamics in the arpeggios could use some more variance from one another. Rather than being in limbo on it, though, I'd say either make one or two more touches and submit it, or simply submit it as is - this will allow you to move on to more fun music, and the track might pass, after all. That's my thought on it - best of luck, however you decide to move on this.

MOD REVIEW: Eh, the hats didn't bother me nearly as much - I think you could get away with them in this track. I actually thought the wet sound gave the track some more color, which is always (well, almost always) nice. I'm going to have to echo Zircon's comment on the muddy nature of this track. There's just too much going on in the mid section of the EQ, so everything blends together in a guitar soup. It feels like you're playing the rhythm on the same strings as the lead, as they share the same sonic space. That rhythm really needs to be taken much lower while the lead stays roughly an octave above it. I know it sucks to re-record anything in a track, but in this case I think it'd be worth it, fixing both the muddiness issue AND the bass issue at the same time. Speaking of which, yeah, the bass is non-existent. The rhythm idea could work if it were playing in the lowest strings of the guitar, but it doesn't really sound like it. If it is then you really need to mess with the EQ on your rhythm guitar and bring those lows out significantly. Arrangement sounds good in my book - no comments there. I think I would enjoy this one if the sound was clear and there was enough bass in it, and so would OCR. Fix these things and come back around - likely you'll have something that's passable with those fixes, there. Good luck... and sorry if my suggestions mean a re-record.

I am a mod and I think Bonkers has some good advice. MOD REVIEW: ... Yeah, what Bonkers said, there. I think, rather than trying to fix focused issues on this track for the compression problems, decrease the volume on the entire track overall to deal with it. There's a lot of dynamic fluxuation in this, which is excellent for an orchestra piece, and I wouldn't want to see this lose that flair. There's a lot of clipping and compression issues on this one, though, so you need to lower the level on this song. Most of the time it's hard to hear the mechanical issues in the track due to the complex orchestrations (which works in your favor), but in parts like that string + brass swing for Tara's theme (like at 0:12, for example) the lack of swell for something like that (and the fact that every single swing is exactly the same) the mechanical sound becomes very salient and painful. Some swells in that case, and fight the urge to copy and paste exposed sections and opt to make each one different from another, instead. The arrangement is good... for a medley. Unfortunately, OCR doesn't take kindly to straight up medleys. It's also very, very conservative. Probably too much so for OCR, as it stands. Sorry, but you'll likely need to integrate the themes within one another better and mess with the structure of the track a little bit more in order to be considered for OCR - I can guarantee that this one wouldn't pass based on that alone, even if the production was touched up. Better to hear it from me here than to wait a month or so and hear it from the judges - it's truly a great track, and I loved the energy that it produced, but it's not something that OCR would be able to accept, as it's structured. If you're still going to shoot for getting posted then this song will need some significant changes to the arrangement as to make it less like a medley and less conservative to the source.

MOD REVIEW: Hmm... This one sounds pretty thin. It's got a lot of highs and upper mids, but few lower mids and virtually no bass throughout. Gotta get some bass in there - I think by giving some of your texture instruments some better lower mids and beefing out your bass you'll fill that soundscape more effectively. The arrangement covers your source sufficiently, but it feels like it meanders a bit, there. Bookending the track was a great idea, but I could use a little more in the middle that connects it what the beginning had to offer - with all the other sources in here, it's border-lining medley territory, here.. That arpeggio that plays throughout the middle sounds neat when it comes in, but by the time it's finished it starts to grate on my ears because of how long it remains - it plays for nearly 1:30 out of 4:17. That's nearly a straight third of the track, there. Cut some out of it, or space it in your track a little better, there. The glitch stuff was pretty awesome. Wish there was more of that in there, personally... Neat arrangement, but it needs a little work before you decide to submit it. Best of luck with it, though - the short source doesn't have enough love on here.

MOD REVIEW: Sounds like Amphibious has it down, there - shrill lead and dry piano that's mixed a little too close to the front, there. Follow his advice - it's some good advice, there . 1:34 - 2:30 tends to drone on, a bit. I hear the variations on it, and they all improve the sound (the spring yard zone ditto in the middle there was quite cool, in particular), but it still sounds like you're trying to add small variations to a larger repeating part, and it gets old after a little while. As a rule of thumb, keeping patterns in powers of two is a safe bet - otherwise it either sounds just a little too long or a little too short. In this case, you have what is essentially the same part with variations repeat six times, which makes the part sound too long. I'd remove two repetitions in there and work the variations within that frame. That trumpet is mighty sexy. Loved it. Those are my big gripes on this one - fix up the issues that Amphibious brought up and trim some of the middle down and I think you'll have it down. It's a great track, overall - quite a step up from the Dive Man track, if I do say so myself (then again, you've done plenty since then, so why am I still stuck on that? ).

Considering the limited source and the anti-style you use for the track, this is really impressive. I've always known that you'd be a great remixer on here. This track shows that I wasn't off on that prediction. Nice work on it.

Hmm... the popping might actually be the hat sample strike, now that I'm listening to it a second time. I'll go with that, for right now - I was doing some hardcore critiquing yesterday, so I might've mistook that as clipping. Oh well.

Beware the power of Pretzel! Before he was hittin' the Beats per Minute, he was the SLAMMIN' the Frames per Second!

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm hoping for, myself.

I think you misspelled 'Prince of Darkness' up there, buddy. Well, my commentary on this one would be that the guitar tone is nice and clear, for the most part (especially the leads, which I enjoy quite a bit). The guitars and strings are hitting the peaks a little bit too much for my tastes, though - I'm hearing some popping from time to time that's distracting from the rest of the track. Spending a little time with the mixing would do this track wonders. Some of the synths and instruments are a little weak (that female choir, for example, is very thin - could use a lower voice to give it meat, or something). The drums are a little hard to hear in this one, too - moar bass drum would be pretty beneficial to this one. Moar bass overall, actually, would be great - there's a distinct lack of bass in this track. The arrangement and guitar work, though, is spot on, and that's the real important part of something like this. It's fun to listen to as is - hopefully with a few of the fixes I've suggested you can make this track unstoppable, Sixto be damned.

MOD REVIEW Mmm, a lot of flavor in this one. The arrangement works pretty well - I like what you did with the themes in the middle, there. The reverb is wet enough, and the dynamics are pretty neat. One issue that brings this down, though, is the static strikes of the notes. On a piano, the dynamics are not the only thing that changes when a note gets louder or quieter. While you have great dynamics in this track, the accents of the notes sound the same, as if the pianist is hitting the notes all the same way. Ask around and see if with your particular sample there are ways to create accents other than detache (Legato, Staccatto, Phrasing under a slur, strikes with the Una Chorda... or that 'Soft Pedal', etc. etc.). These are all very important in creating a great, live feel. There are people that can (and have) done this with their music before; Ivory is an example of someone that I know who can help handle this issue quite well. I don't know why I can't think of anyone else, at the moment, but that's at least one person who might be able to give some advice to achieve these effects. You've got the arrangement down, you've got the dynamics, with this final step it'll sound as human as it can get, and it'll be ready for OCR. Not yet, though, seeing that while you put a great amount of effort into making it human (and it's paid off, so far), there's still just a little more that needs to be done. I'd like to see this on the front page, so I hope to hear even more progress soon. By the way, I just noticed that you changed your link while I was making this review, forcing me to delete some of the commentary that I was going to give (since you fixed it). While that's great that you fixed the issues, if you know you're going to make a change please keep the thread as a Work In Progress, if at all possible, as that makes it easier on the Mods. I know it probably wasn't intentional, so it's alright, I'm just putting it out there for people. *Ahem* Nice work, very close, but I think you'd still be called out on this one on the panel because of the single issue I presented up there. Mix it up a bit (not arbitrarily, of course, but in a fitting, pleasant way) and you'll be in great shape with this one.

Got yo message, man, and I really enjoy this game + it's soundtrack. I suspect with the albums you like making that you were a Sega kid back in the day, weren't you? Anyway, put me down for "Theme of Smash Daisaku". I think I can do something pretty fun for this one.

Mmm, if I had a computer that ran the game at 100% speed I'd get in on hardcore in a heartbeat. As it stands, though, there's something like a .5 - 1 second delay to everything (due to my graphics card, not my internet connection), so I can't physically avoid certain circumstances. Makes the occasional death impossible to avoid. One suggestion I'll give to you, though, is to either break from play only after large quests are finished or refresh a given quest from the beginning whenever you enter a new game. It'd be a real bummer to have a lag spike the moment you enter the game... and you enter the game in the middle of a dungeon full of nasty baddies (had it happen to be earlier today... good times ). That'd be a horrible way to lose a hardcore character.

MOD REVIEW Dunno if it's ponies or whatnot, but you really have an improved sound to your remixing, as of late. I'mma liking this one quite a bit. Just a note about the singing - while it's a neat tone (sounds a little like Symphony X when they're singing a more pure tone, to me), and the raw, non-autotuned sound is refreshing to hear (not that you ever autotuned, I'm just sayin' overall), you have a tendency to sing a hint flat over time (and every once in a while, really flat, like the attack at 1:08 ). It's not enough to make the song hard to listen to, but it's enough to color the entire track just a little droopy. Don't worry about it as much, here, but for future tracks keep that in mind and brighten your sound up, maybe even sing a hint sharp for you, it'll make a big impact on your music. The synth work is excellent, and the guitar playing is effective. I would've liked a more distinct tone to the rhythm guitar guitar, though (the rhythm sounds a little like guitar soup, as it stands). If at all possible, give the rhythm guitar a more distinct tone, or accent the rhythm better in the performance. I can understand that you don't want to re-record any guitar work for this track, so if not for this track, then I'd like to see that for the next track, at the very least. The arrangement is pretty neat, but with that fade-out ending it sounds... incomplete. Sometimes a F/O works, and sometimes it doesn't, and this is one of those cases where closing off the song would've been far more effective. Find a way to close this track off better, I suspect the judges wouldn't be too impressed with this ending. Other than that, this is a sexy beast. Fix that ending in particular and maybe the guitar tone for this one and I could see a front page track, on your hands.

Sir_nutS, Ben Briggs, Halc, AkumajoBelmont, Main Finger... One by one all of the people I thought would've been favored to win have seemed to drop off of this compo. It's kind of invigorating to think that this is truly an open competition, now, where pretty much anyone can win. Lotsa talent going into this thing, ladies and gents, let's close these next three rounds strong!