JJT

i've written out 3 or 4 decisions, and ultimately erased them all. i guess what it comes down to is that for "throwback" mixes such as this one, the arrangement needs to be stellar for me to feel comfortable passing it. there are some interesting melodic ideas brought to the table, and there's a lot of complexity, but the overall presentation is not enough to win me over. plus that damn bassline slowly saps my will to live after about 2 minutes i hate doing this because i have a lot of respect for chris, but my gut tells me no. OMG VOTECHANGE edit: as i was taking a shower this morning, it occured to me that maybe i've set the bar too high. all of my original complaints stand, and i'm not terribly fond of this mix. i think it deserves to be on this site though. YES (am i even allowed to do this?)

things that are making this arrangement boring: lack of variation in the accompaniment (darke is right). you're using the same textures through the entirety of the mix. it gets tiresome. lack of harmonic variation. 85% of this arrangement is the same 4 chords over and over and over and over. NO

there needs to be some thought put into creatively re-arranging the source material. slapping a new drum beat over a cover is not going to do it. and having the same basic drum beat for the duration of the mix makes this very uninteresting to listen to. not the worst submission we've ever gotten, but this is nowhere near the bar. NO

The arrangement needs a lot more creativity and thought put into it. Expand on the musical ideas you've expressed allready and add some new ones as well. Your synth design could also use some improvement, and the sequencing is a tad mechanical. Put some more effort into every aspect of this remix and you'll have something pretty cool in the end. NO

I'm totally gonna hack your OCR account.

arrangement is too vanilla, production is too sketch. please familiarize yourself with the submission guidelines and hit up the remixing forums for production insights. NO

not quite there. certainly above the level of most techno submissions we get. this mix is extremely low on melody. as zirc said, bring out the melodic ideas a lot more. sounds pretty good, but needs to be better before it'll pass through the panel. and if it were my mix, i'd really revise that ending....that's just me though. NO RESUBMIT

definetly isn't the worst submission i've heard, but it still needs a lot of work. when i was 16 or so, i began a FFIX medly that sounded a lot like this, just jumping from one idea to the next without much continuity. my advice would be to trim the arrangement down and get it to have a more unified feel from beginning to end. it'd also be cool if you could get a guitar player in the community or a friend to lend there axe to this mix. that, of course, isn't always an option. spend some more time on this one, it's worth refining. NO RESUBMIT

the snare rolls really really bug me, especially because they're the first noticeably fake sounding element of this remix, and they stick around for quite awhile. honestly, they sound worse then in the original spc. the overall sample set is about "princess bride" quality to mine ears, if you catch my drift. if you don't, then go watch the princess bride and you'll know what i mean. my biggest issue with this mix is really that the arrangement is cheesy, often vague and somewhat hamfisted in the way it presents itself. low brass quarter notes in the opening section = wtf? yeah, this just isn't doing anything for me. your grasp of music theory is solid, but you're essentially covering about 20% of the source material and filling the rest with melodramatic mush. NO

I agree with jesse here. The arrangement is too vanilla and the samples/instrumentation are dull and uninspired. It's a good foundation for a remix, it just needs a more creative approach IMO. NO

I'm feeling section 1, but there's absolutely no melody, just a sustained groove that gets my head bobbin' Hmmmmm, if there was some kind of transition at 1:50 this wouldn't sound so ridiculous. It feels like you didn't know how to tie these two sections together, so you just cut everything out and started the new bit. There's potential here. And a melody in section 1 would be appreciated. NO

anyone care to explain this one for me? kinda reminds me of an Ali G interview...

I actually take pride in my low post count. Case in point, I plan to resign from the panel on the day I hit 1000.

dood that's Chrono Trigger noob Did someone fucking mention Chrono Trigger? I'll be actively shunning WIPs and other filters that come out of this project for maximum surprise effect months down the road. bLiNd for the win. Edit: Oh, and make the Turks / Shinra / Rufus Welcoming (if it's in) fantastic! Actually I could name at least five RPGs featuring dudes with spiky hair. But I'm not going to so HA!~ *wants to sing for you guys * WE ALL GOT THE JOKE THE FIRST TIME AROUND STOP KILLING IT. why are you all so mean i'm going back to vgmusic.com

NO good ideas, sloppy execution. the other judges have covered all of the gripes I have with this submission. tighten the screws and resubmit.

is that the game where you run around with the guy with spiky hair?

the concerns about how the drums sound are pretty valid, though for reggae the drum patterns are supposed to be sparse. the biggest problem for me is that the rhthym section doesn't groove, which is a necessity for the genre. your bass playing has improved greatly, but at times you're trying to do too much and subsequently losing the harmonic foundation along with the groove. for example, during the guitar solo you start noodling and moving away from the root of the chord. you'll never hear the bass player for steel pulse doing that. let the guitar do the soloing and hold down the groove. another problem here is the lead guitar noodling over the lyrics in the first verse...from a songwriting perspective that doesn't make any sense. So for me the biggest problem with the arrangement is not the drums, but that the various roles in the rhythm section aren't thought out very deliberately, and in reggae you just can't get away with that. NO

this has some good ideas but isn't executed very well. the drums are very poorly mixed and eq'd. for me the biggest problem with this arrangement is the lack of any dynamic contrast. it hangs around at metzo-forte for 3 minutes and feels very flat and uninteresting. NO

TO and Liontamer are right on here. This mix says nothing that the original doesn't already. This is nothing more then a poorly done cover. As Larry said, spend some time in WIP and try to bring some fresh ideas to the table when you're arranging the source material. NO

some great ideas in here, and some great grooves, but you need to trim the fat off this arrangement. the single note rhodes line gets on my nerves quickly. change up the pattern or cut it off. the electric piano is really cheesy IMO, and Jesse's criticisms are spot on. its sounds awkward at times. you need something better at the forefront of this mix. NO refine/resubmit

As vig and liontamer have allready pointed out, the sequencing is really sloppy and awkward. The guitar/synth line is slightly off with the bass figure which makes me eye twitch when I listen. A simple arrangement with a weird instrumental build in the middle. Drum break = wtf. Your skill as a sequencer needs to be improved along with your skill as an arranger. This isn't gonna cut it. NO

YES sounds a little shaky at parts, but overall this is over the bar. the EP and keyboard comping is interesting, if a little frantic at times. i dig.

straightforward arrangement, repetitive drum programming, and the sound clips just sound kinda awkward, like Larry said. this needs a lot of work. NO

I agree with Jesse that the eq alone shouldn't make this a no. It wasn't enough to really alter my listening experience. Although this is a pretty big improvement from k1's other submissions, this remix is borderline. A good performance and a good arrangement, but I just can't handle the quality of the string samples. They sound painfully GM, and are extremely dry and exposed. Part of me wants to give this a YES, but due to how integral the strings are to the arrangement I just don't feel right about passing it. You're getting better koelsch, but you're not quite there. Oh, and the volume level was way too low. NO

The reverb + delay on the synths really makes this mix muddy. wow, that was a lot of alliteration....anyway moving on. This is too straight ahead of an arrangement for OCR. It could also stand for some better synth design. Keep at it. NO