orkybash

Chrono Trigger 'What Hath Thou Done with This' Fairly standard techno track, but there are some nice musical ideas here (such as the piano solo). Personally I thought the sounds were a little thin and that made me not enjoy it as much as I could have, but it's a worthy first submission nonetheless.

This mix doesn't seem to have a whole lot of life in it. For the most part, it sounds much too empty. This is because there's usually not much going on other than the lead and the drums. The ending seems too much like an abrupt "I don't know what to do now so I'll just end it" sort of thing. There are some good ideas here, though, so it's not all bad. I would suggest adding more layers, making the drums *MUCH* louder, adding bass, maybe doing so EQ work, and re-thinking the ending. Vote: NO

Well, I'm here to submit another one of my own remixes. Are we still allowed to post right to the judge forum, DJP? If not, sorry. But I'll go ahead and do it anyway. The link is . Yeah, yeah, I know this ain't my best work, but I still think it's OC material. But I never feel comfortable voting on my own mix, so I'll let you guys decide, k?

You *did* see the 128 kbit version I posted a link to, right?

Crystalis 'Calming the Angry Sea' Though I never played Crystalis, I *do* know that it is probably the most requested game (except, of course, Terranigma), and this remix should appease those requesting it, at least for a while. It's simple - guitars and seagulls - but it works well. I do have some beefs with it - Coulda used more reverb, for example. But overall it's well arranged, and well worth a download.

Sorry, this doesn't work for me. The techno drum beat deosn't really jive with the rest of the song. Maybe try something a little more hip-hopish or jazzy? Also, the low vibes (if that's reallt what they are) don't sound good at all. All in all, this needs much work. No

No. Just... No. Rob - You have to copy-and-pastu.

Fun little mix. I would say that it's in desperate need of reverb and a better guitar sample. And it sounds empty at times. And the part around 1:20 doesn't really work for me. And I don't like the fade at the ending. And... Oh, who am I fooling. At first I thought this was going to be good enough to post, but I'm finding too many woulda shoulda coulda's with it. Just one or two of them wouldn't be too bad, but there's too much wrong here to warrent posting. No

AAAAAAAAARGH! I cannot stand another minute of listening to that beatdrop! It wouldn't be so bad,, except that it's much too loud and overpowers everything else that's going on. Other than that, though, it's a viable (if a bit standard) techno mix. So nix or tone down the beatdrop and I'd be fine with it. And while you're at it do something with the ending other than fade out. For now I'm gonna have to say NO

aaargh... repeats the same thing over and over and over and over and over. Not much variation until after the 2:30 mark. So, in a word, bo-ring. But on the plus side, the instruments are high quality (the high hat or brass didn't bother me that much), so liven it up some and it will be much better. But for now NO

Red flags went up when I read the description as it made the song sound like just a repeat of what you hear in the OST. And that's what it is, mostly. Though I must admit, I enjoyed the artistic liscences taken with the song. The other problem, though, is that the samples here sound like ass. The strings have much too sharp of an attack. And the piano... well, I can't put my finger on what's wrong with it (maybe another judge can help out), but it ruins the mix for me. If this had amazing, or even good, samples, I would post it in a heartbeat. But as it is, I'm gonna have to say NO

Drums are repetative. Other elements aren't that interesting as well. Sounds too much like general MIDI. And the voice sample really kills it for me. NO

Yeah. Intro is definitely much too long. But after that it piciks up and I actually started to enjoy the song. It's not the greatest, but it's not bad, either. So I would have to give this a YES.

It starts off sounding really cool. Then around 2:30 everything falls apart into a mass of off-keyness. And then there's a bad voice sample. Then everything sounds cool again, and then there's off-key strings. Then it ends. There's a lot of great stuff here, but there's also a lot of distracting off key notes. So I guess I'm with malcos. Fix the notes and you're OK, but until then, NO.

Well, I think the samples need better quality (they sound a bit harsh and thin now), but other than that I like this arrangement. It's formula techno for most of it, but there are some interesting ideas as well. Vote: YES BTW, there's a high quality (128 kbit) version of this at VGmix. Go to http://www.vgmix.com/songview.php?songid=883 .

First thing that strikes me is the high-quality bongos. Secong thing is the high-quality guitar. Then the mix breaks out into a more traditional rock and it only gets better. In fact, the only thing that bugs me at all here is the fade out ending. So, in short... POST IT!!!!

or me

Final Fantasy Tactics 'Teach Me How to Rave' I think Pretzel summed this remix up nicely with his write-up: It's predictable, but it's still cool. For my part I have to say that I enjoyed the upbeat middle section a bit more than the Arabianesque intro and outtro because it sounded a lot fuller. In fact, if I had to give a complaint about this mix, I would say that it sounded empty to my ears for a lot of the time. Those times when Thomas really fleshed things out, though, made up for the emptier sections. So yeah. I guess the short story here is "I likes."

This is very well produce sound-wise, but the arrangement really doesn't work. You need to add a lot more variation so people don't go crazy listening to the same theme over and over. I would change up the instruments, especially the lead and the drums. Once you get it so it doesn't drive me crazy with repetativeness, though, everything here is high enough quality to warrent a yes. Until then.... No

Psychrophyte, learn how to pan. i'm not too hot in the area either - that's why you'll see most of my songs end up on closer to the mono end of the "panning spectrum." But the intro to this was just painful to listen to because the balance was all off. And I'm not even listening through headphones. This mix certainly takes it's sweet time saying what it wants to. Interest level could be higher, especially in the drums. And just as it sounds like things might start to pick up, the soung cuts out. Overall I felt that not much happened here. That *might* work on its own, but coupled with the panning problems it's too much. I gotta vote No, but with the caveat that this doesn't need a whole lot more work before it gets where it needs to be.

Volume definately needs to go down. Though, uber-loud mixes have been posted before, so I don't think that's grounds for holding this one back. But I must say, the volume isn't this mix's only problem. It gets way to repetative. It's essentially the same measure of stuff over and over and over for almost three minutes. Granted, there's an attempt to keep things interesting by adding some variation in the instruments and drums, but it just wasn't enough. When I have to make a real effort to keep my attention on a song, it's never good. I'm gonna have to say No here. The artist shows potential in terms of the style of music, and the samples used, etc. But this song got old much too fast for my taste.

Well, the focus is on the drums as you said, and fortunately those drums are very good. They're changed up enough to keep if from being repetative, which would have killed a song like this. Unfortunately, the same quality is far from evident in the other instruments. The brass samples are passable (except for the low section), but the way they're used just rubs me the wrong way. Not enough harmony, I think. You have several instruments playing the same melody in different octaves, and that just doesn't work, IMO. It might improve things if the dums were way louder and more intense, almost but not quite enough to drown out the brass. On the plus side, the pan flute sounds awesome. But all in all, this remix just doesn't sound right somehow. No

So-so. There are a lot of things here that grated, like the background noise in the intro (made me wonder what kind of crap I was about to listen to), or the solo guitar right before the mix "breaks out." And just the fact that things just sound a bit subdued here. It sounds like it wants to be intense, but it isn't and it *definitely* isn't satisfied in its subdued form. But it's not all bad - the arrangement has it's merits, for one. I think the is just barely good enough to squeak by. Next time work getting a little more excitement in there, though. Yes

Not gonna vote on the Zak mix, simply cause I think we need to emphasize only looking at one mix at a time. As for the sonic mix.... I can't say I like it. The synths sound too low-quality and GM-ish. I wuold suggest not having such an attack on everything. It's downright boring until the drums come in, which happens more than halfway through. Made me feel like half the song was intro, which generally isn't a good thing. The drums seem a tad off time-wise. And again, though the addition of new instruments helps a bit, they still need a major quality boost. All in all, there isn't enough here to make it worthwhile, and what's here is too low in quality. No

Well, some of your samples (like that organ) don't seem to fit in well. And I'm kinda not liking the way it loops twice without much variation, if any at all. As a result, the song doesn't hold much interest. Change things up a bit and things will be much better. On the plus side, it did a good job enhancing the mood of the original, and the sound quality was mostly good (except of course for the organ). I'm gonna say No here, to let the artist go back and put some more work into it and basically make it interesting. And just one last note, be sure you crop any silence from the end of the file. There was about 15 seconds of it at the end here, which in my book is way too long.