Disco Dan

Castlevania II 'Simon's Town' Er... I'm trying to decide if there's anything I DON'T like about this mix. Maybe the overlap of the reverb in places where it seems to bleed too much, but other than that, I'm not sure I can give this anything but praise. I loved the stringed intro, the beat used, the sounds chosen for the lead, and um, yeah anything else I didn't mention. The only other thing I'd have to say is that I have this lingering doubt that this isn't really AE after all.... DC

Ultima Online 'My Dying Ocllo' What if I were to say I don't know what "MMORPG" stands for? Anyway, terminology aside, one thing I DO know, is that that rain sample sounds more like fire than rain. But anyway, since I haven't heard the original I can't really say how this compares. It's a nice little piece on its own. I see what djp is talking about with the drums there. There is no bass on that kick drum, and the snare seems exceptionally loud in comparison. Not really a thing of the drums being too quiet, but unbalanced in relationship to themselves. The synth guitar isn't so bad as a sample. Well... ok, so this isn't really my bag, but I'm sure fans of the game will enjoy it. So do so. DC

Rockman & Forte 'Hyperrock Fortisimo' Ok, this is weird. I know I've heard this theme before, like, enough to remember it verbatim, but unless "Rockman & Forte" has an American Equivalent by a different name like X2 or X5 or something, I know I've never played the original. Wonder if they just used the music more than once... Anyway, this is a questionable mix in my mind, because I wasn't aware that techno was legally allowed to be this fast. However it's very well put together, the sounds are professional, and though the 180bpm four-on-the-floor sound can get annoying after overexposure, it varies enough to keep it interesting. DC

Wow... How... Um... Vocal, you are, Orkybash. Anyway, those voice samples are from the game. The background music is not. I wouldn't call this a remix really. It's more of a sound collage. Anyway, it's not based on any music from Duke Nukem, so: NO DC

Hmm... I like the idea. I like almost all of it. The only thing I DON'T like about it, really, is the choice of lead. The piano. I don't know. I know most of you suckers just LOVE the piano in any form, but I really don't think it fits here. Also, the melody sort of blurs itself with the reverb. I, personally, would have probably used some sort of saw wave synth with a dirty edge to it for the melody instead of the piano. I mean, contrast is good, but at the same time, there is a difference between good and bad contrast. At least I think so. Ok, I don't know about this length thing. It actually seems too short to me. It went by and now it's done. Anyway that I could deal with. But man... that piano. It just... I don't know. It seems way too clean for this. There are three yeses now anyway so I won't feel like such an ass for saying NO on this one, but it really bugs me. REALLY. Like, FOR REAL DC

Weird. The furnace for our central heat has this low rumbling sound that's in the same key as the song. I was listening and thinking "what was he thinking when he put that low sustained note in there.... why is it still going?" I paused out of curiosity only to find it was not the song, but our furnace. For reference, our furnace heats in the key of B. Thank you. DC

Ok. I'm actually kind of torn on this one. This is really pretty enjoyable to listen to. I MEAN The piece is varied as far as layers are concerned. The drums don't really change much, but they do drop out from time to time.... or did I not hear that correctly... gah, gotta relisten. This thing is long. But anyway, other material is introduced within the context of the same chord progression throughout the song so it's interesting in that sense too... Ok, no I was wrong. The drums don't drop out until the end. WAIT A MINUTE HERE ok, I listen from beginning to end, and what do I hear? I hear a song that was intended to be played on loop, like a background track. WELL BASICALLY That's what I was going to say anyway, that because of certain elements, it barely makes a dent in the air around me. Those elements are as follows: NUMBER ONE What Jive said. The beat really is kind of subtle. I thought your snare was nice and loud, but the bass drum is more like an electrotom than a kick. That, and as I said, the drums don't really vary THAT much between the time they start at the beginning and the time they stop at the end. NUMBER TWO (who does he work for?) I really want to hear some better samples used. Maybe even some MORE samples used. I realize, however, that in a piece of this style, there's a certain amount of repetition to be expected, but how hard would it be to find some higher quality samples? Which leads me to point NUMBER THREE (there is no joke regarding this phrase) The encoding rate is pretty bad. The file limit is 6 megs. I'm thinking you could do this at at LEAST 128kbps and be fine. In FACT, I'd be willing to bet that you could encode it at 160 and still squeak by under the 6 meg line. Anyway, that's what I'd like to hear done to the song, and for that, I dub thee: Sir NO From Me For Now DC

You know, for some reason, I think I thought this topic was locked. Now I see that is not, nor was it ever, the case. Ok The song This is really moving slowly. Not just the tempo, but the attack on the strings. Anyway that's pretty irrelevant, it just feels to me like this thing is taking forever to get somewhere... Oh THAT'S where it's going. 2:05 a two minute intro. A two minute intro is ok in a 30 minute song, but not in a song that is only 1.5 times the length of the intro. Anyway, this might just be my opinon. But I am going to have to agree with Protr--- um Ok. Yeah, the way my sentence stopped up there? That's how this song ends. Sort of. It's not cut off, but it does sound unfinished. At 3:17, with a 2 minute intro before we hear something from zelda, and an ending which really leaves me unsatisfied (i.e. wanting maybe some closure to this musical case of blue balls), I can't say yes to this. Finish the song, then resubmit. Please. Yes, I realize only one other person noticed this or thought it was good enough despite these things, so I know this won't carry much weight, but... NO DC

for all of those who reviewed this, if you forgot what you said, this is what I copied from the recovery log: Spacemogg - A World Of Piano One should care less about the technical aspects of a tune if one approaches it with the ear of an impartial fan. "Arpeggiated 5ths" -- whatever. Nuts and bolts and over my head, but I know what I like and I likey the piano. Thank you Klutz, it's gorgeous. Brought to me my memories of my *first time!* on a starry dormroom night, flunking Astro with a contraband white wine and digging Debussy. It's so lovely. Thanx for the memories... Starblaze - Yeah. There's a chord that's wrong every time he plays it, but the first time you hear it is within the first few seconds of the song. Sorry, that bugs me to death. Everything else is great, though. Nice job. _________________ -Starblaze "You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same." Shhteve - The best thing about remixes is the fact that the artists like to remake the song as the way they think it should sound, and I believe this one is very close to how I would have liked to have heard it. Very well done Klutz. frobnitz - I love it, beautiful. Yea, this one gave me some of those memories from what seems like oh-so long ago now of playing FF7 day and night Good job, keep 'em coming! _________________ RPGfreak7771 - It brings back memories for me too! FF7 was the first RPG i played and it got me into piano, and this remix only intrests me more! thanks! _________________ AKA: DJ-Fartz If you'd rather just retype them, that's cool too. Just do something so I can delete this so later generations will have no clue that a rollover ever occurred... DC

Final Fantasy VII 'A World of Piano' Ok. Honestly, this one didn't impress me. Yes, it's done on the piano. Yes it was played live (most likely anyway). But I honestly didn't think it was out of the ordinary for a piano arrangement. The melody was pretty much standard with a little bit of variety near the end, and the accompaniament was pretty standard arpeggiated 5ths. I suppose with time we'll see more variety and versatility from Mr. Klutz, but for a first or second attempt, it's not bad. The dynamics and technique are good. DC

Adventures of Bayou Billy 'Trippin' on Alligators' I haven't heard this. Someone say something about it. DC

Guardian Legend 'Naju Overture' ... what djp said ...

Wow this sounds exactly like the town life in piano mix we just had... arpeggiated accompaniament... simple chord progression, very little variety. But flawless execution and nice dynamics. I feel like I've said this before.... And there's something fishy about the flawless performance... I can't put my finger on it. It's definitely a synth, which is fine, but there's something artificial about the playing, and I think it's the breaks, and the jumps, which the more I think about, sound really ... doctored, or impossible. I could be way off here, but anyway... Ok, I hate to be the pessimist or the cynic or whatever I am, but I really don't feel this has much to offer, besides being piano based. The playing really isn't THAT impressive, but I may be a bit biased being at a music school with a focus on composition and piano performance, and being constantly blown away by the other students who seem to actually like playing the piano, and then by the jazz pianists whose ability to improvise and vary seems unending. But all in all, I feel the piano work here is very cliché and sounds like something I'd do just messing around on the keys, only to close the piano lid, say "blah," and walk away as my dad says "that was nice, Daniel, what was that?" because they're much more easily impressed... But anyway, I don't feel this is spectacular, and the part I guess that bugs me the most about it is the similarity to the arrangement that was just submitted by this guy just a week or so ago, just in arrangement style and technique. Kind of bored me. Spice it up, buddy. Kick it up a notch. BAM! Anyway, that's my reasoning, and I'm stickin' to it. NO DC

Ya know... I wasn't going to say anything about this originally. I listened to it, heard that it was decent, and decided, "ok, these guys made the right choice (as if there's a right or wrong here) in saying Yes unanimously." But then I listened to the original. And then I played the original. I might have shit for music-reading ability, but my ears can tell me what my eyes can't. This song had a beautiful chord progression to it. I know, I get on everyone's case about this. But the original was so beautiful. The bass was so appropriate for the melody and chord progression. This is the AOL of chord progressions, folks. This arranger has made the chord progression so user-friendly that it's lost all of it's beauty, at least to me. Great dynamics, and flawless playing. That's all I'd give this song. The variation really isn't all that varied. The melody doesn't change. In fact, the more I listen to it, I realize there is so much more that COULD have been done with it. Try different time signature. Try minor. Theme and variations aren't supposed to be half-assed. But the slaughtering of the chord progression bugs me more than anything else about this song. Too much 1-4-5 for a song that originally had so much class. I realize it's already been voted for and was unanimous, but I really just could not let this go without saying something. Maybe I'm an ass, but I think "maybe" is being too lenient. Had I been voting, there would be a fat: NO here. DC

Ok, I'm not really going to say anything that hasn't been said before. I like almost everything about this and in all actuality, I might be able to handle the incredible repetition, but I think the key to repetition is varying it enough that people can skip through and see "ok this is different from the last part" and in addition to that, the thing you're repeating has to not be annoying, which in this case, it is not. So really just a little variety (someone sometime said it was the spice of life... don't know how accurate that is) might be key. And since no one else is going to say yes to this anyway, I'm gonna say... YES Just like those people who voted for Nader.... DC

Star Fox 'Meteorave' I have no recollection of this theme from the game, but maybe I never made it to this level or something. Oh there it is. Glad djp has that "get the original" option there. Anyway it's a nice, high quality song, though it sort of changes the creepy night atmosphere that the original had. Nice work though. DC

Locked. Not quite sure how we're supposed to let him know personally, since he didn't want his e-mail address being used, but... dc

The first thing I really notice in this mix is the way all of the instruments are in slightly different keys - please fix that. Tune. Find someone with a good ear for music and they'll be able to tell you that every one of those parts sounds out of tune from the others. And really, I mean, you've got this great build up (sans the out of tune instruments) and then you climax around 1:20 with this SNES sounding beat and drum kit. It just seems like the build doesn't really go where it sounds like it should/wants to/etc. At 2:52 we're back into something kind of cool. And I think at this point, most of the instruments used are in tune with each other... or at least mostly. Anyway, I didn't think the ending was awful, but it wasn't splendorful either, so .... yeah I've got enough bad things on my list to say: NO DC

It's not just the drone in the bass. The melody has too little attack and too much reverb making it less of an instrument and more of a noise wave. Hard to tell when one note stops and another one starts. It's an interesting idea to have this particular melody over this kind of beat, but in all honesty, I don't think it works very well. The drums sound spastic. Makes me think it's a mistake or something, but, whatever. Then when the techno drums come in, I can't even hear the bass drum over the other bass frequencies. Those strings sound very ... um ... I don't know. They have that really low bitrate sound to them, which was popular in a lot of IT songs as I recall, but they're in mono in this song, so it's kind of out of place. I don't know, I just don't feel this has a whole lot to do with Frog's theme and when it does, it feels weak to me. Meh. NO DC

As much as I hate to do it, I pretty much have to agree with DC13 on this one. Except that the screaming really doesn't keep my interest. It kind of makes me want to rip the headphones off my head and stare at the monitor in disgust. But other than that, this mix has some good points. I honestly didn't think that the Beastie Boys' clip made it awful, and at least it was kept within the rhythmic scheme of the song. But yeah, the quality could definitely be upped a few notches, considering the song is under 4 minutes anyway. At least to 128, and all of you purists with your "MUST BE AT LEAST ONE SIXTY IN ORDER TO SATISFY AURAL NEEDS" can cram it. But yeah, just up the quality... maybe tone down that awful screeching, and I think it'd be fine. But for now... NO DC

Ok, well there are a few things that strike me as "non-OCR-material" for this song. I'm wondering why it made it to the judges panel as opposed to going straight to... well anyway. There really isn't much variety here. I hear two or three different synths in the mix. Probably three since that's how many instruments are used in NSF files. And basically this falls into the "take a midi or nsf file, copy the notes, add a beat, don't vary it, then submit it and hope that it makes it in based on the fact that it's your first mix" category, and songs in that category get a no from me. So here: NO DC

Wow. You guys are harsh. Leave that to me. But since you've already undermined my authority as the "bad cop" here, I'll have to be kind of nice. .... No, I was going to be nice, but I can't Well, ok, the title isn't THAT bad, and I wouldn't say "it's uncreative and not cute..." welll... it's not CUTE, but it's not godawful either. Anyway, about the song... Why don't you just fade in all the parts one by one? Oh you did that? Great. And now why don't you put a stereotypical homemade techno beat behind it? Oh, you're one step ahead of me, it seems. Ok, now, just follow the song exactly as it is in the NFS file. Oh wow, glad I don't have to tell you to do that because once again you're too quick for me! And finally just end it. Ok. Good. NO DC

ok. I'm gonna say NO to this one for the following reasons: The title is "Metal Shredder." Cute, but this particular tune is the opening title song. Anyway, that's not really pertinent to the song anyway. While I don't think there's anything WRONG with the piece on its own, its rubs me the wrong way. Why? Because it seems like another case of mistaken identity. This remix doesn't really follow the original enough for me to think it's a remix of it and not the theme from the cartoon. Almost like a hybrid. Yeah we all heard the opening theme on the TMNT game and thought "this isn't quite the same as the show" but that's the way it was. And I'm not even sure where this guy is going around :34 - :46. Anyway, I don't mind diverging from a theme from time to time, but this one is especially hard for me to pass through because it is also the theme from the tv show. Could also be that the sound of the whole thing grates on me, like it's too much, too fast, and then cuts off at 1:20 (though the ending is nicely done) before it's really started. Not everyone needs to write songs that are 8 minutes long, but this seems a bit to the opposite extreme. Dunno. I don't feel good enough about this one to pass it (and it has nothing to do with the style, because I can appreciate when a style is done well, no matter what the genre). DC

yeah I know this is locked. Yeah I know it got through, and now I'm kicking myself for not catching it earlier on. First of all, if you're going to be minimalistic, do it. Don't pretend to do it, then kill us with synths that make me want to run and hide under a rock (not in the good way that I usually mean that phrase...). There were moments in this song that I enjoyed. Like up until :57 it was enjoyable, then with the killing synths. Then from 2:00 til around 2:30 was decent again, and even then when the death synths came in they weren't so overbearing the second time around. But I guess all of this wouldn't bug me so much if the song weren't based on the same four bar chord progression repeated over and over again, and I guess if that's how the original went, there's only so much you can do with it, but I really didn't feel there was a whole lot of variety here. Anyway, this is all moot since the song already got its four yeses, but I would have said, as per usual, NO, to this one, had I gotten in a bit earlier. Hell, I'll say it now, since it doesn't have any affect on the outcome: NO So there. DC

Ok. I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaalllllly torn on this one. Shit, I loved this game. I never could get 5 minutes before I'd have to get online and look at the walk through, since the game made absolutely no sense. Ok, there are some moments of gold in this song, and there is some parts that make me say "what were you thinking?" But at least you were faithful to the original tunes. Ok, so here. I will catalogue which parts were great, and which were not, then say why or why not. No wait, this is too tedious. I have to finish some other stuff, but I'm going to listen to this a few times until I can figure out why I'm so torn. DC