orkybash

Axelay 'Kick My Axe' People, this is one fine remix. There's not much to criticize, and so much to praise - the excellent guitar work, the way the synths are incorporated seamlessly, the well thought out arrangement, the fact that things stay interesting the entire way through.... everything here sounds like it was done by professionals. Remixes like this one don't pop up here to often, so download and enjoy them when they do.

Tales of Phantasia 'Journey to Thor' I'm sorry, but I wanted to shut this off the instant I heard the horrible string sample. Things sound like they're going to continue to sound like ass, until the song hit's 2:20. I guarantee you, wait it out until then and you will be rewarded with some wicked techno work that more than makes up for the iffy intro.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 'Lost Woods South Central' Very smooth and well-produced submission. Sample quality's good, arrangement's a tad repetitive but otherwise well done, and the drum work really shines. My only real complaint is that I'm not sure the choirs that come in around 2:00 really work well on their own - they seemed a tad out of place to me. Once they get combined with the background strings they work well, though. Well worth a download, IMHO.

Rez 'Fear (Arrakis: GIGA)' I have a confession to make: I've never seen Dune. Or played Rez *stunned silence* Now on to the mix... it's very interesting, but not my cup of tea. I'm never fond of mixes where the voice samples seem to take center stage as they do in here (unless it's Daknit finding some great innuendo in innocent StarCraft lines. ^^) but maybe I'm biased cause I'm not familiar with any of the source material. Once the music takes center stage it gets a tad better, but it plays the same short theme over and over and over... I'll be humming it in my sleep now. So I guess there's not much stuff here that I really enjoyed. But if you're into Dune or Rez, you might.

Final Fantasy X 'Far from Home' Well, I feel a tad guilty getting the first word in on another of my mixes, but I guess I'm the only one on the boards to get the reviews integrated for this one. Anyway, I have to say I'm very satisfied with this song. Which is funny, because it sat on my hard drive for three months with me not satisfied at all with it. So what do I do? Extend the drum loop a few measures and bump the synth up an octave for those measures. After listening to the "new" version, I think "hey, that worked, I think i'll release it now." So I did. And now it's one of the few pieces of music I've made that I listen to myself on a regular basis. Anyway, I would recommend that you download it, but then again I'm a tad biased, aren't I?

Guardian Legend 'Big and Blue and Round' This remix is proof that feedback does help people. See when we judges first got it, it came with a bunch of movie samples that killed it. Now, it's a solid techno track, if a repetitive one. Not the best on the site, but not bad either, and still worth a download.

Looks to me like a moot point, since DJP posted it anyway.

Not from me as long as I can't download it.

Sonic the Hedgehog 'Love Hurts' Again, the download system is broken as I write this, but I wanted to get the review system working for the mix. but it's by djp, so it's gotta be good, right? I'll edit this with an actual review once I get to hear the mix. Edit: OK, now that I've had a chance to listen, I must say I really like this one. For all djp's strength at upbeat action-music-gone-technofunk style, I think his real brilliance lies in more subdued songs, and this mix of his id definitely one of those songs. Love the disco-esqueness here, as it's something we don't see too often on this site. If I were you, I would stop reading right here and download it.

Metal Gear Solid 2 'Metal Gear May Cry' I *have* heard the original, and I love it to death, but I can't pick out what's been changed. So I'll just say this is top notch and be done with it.

Final Fantasy IV 'SNES Battle Medley' This is really cool. It has problems - the arrangement is a bit simplistic at times and the guitar playing could use work - but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Too bad it didn't make PMM, but paying royalties for 5 songs in 4 minutes really *isn't* economical.

That was the understanding from the beginning. Even if DJP doesn't like the mix, he still sends it to us so we can give some feedback.

I can't say much for the concept,except that it's, well, cute. That might cut it for me if the execution was spot on, but it isn't. Everything sounds a bit too synthy here, especially the "oom-pah-pah". Synth sounds and this genre don't mix well in my book. And it's just too repetative (again I'm thinking especially of the "oom-pah-pah", which started to grate aroun the third repetition.) I would encourage DJ Night Force 9 to give this a few more revisions and see what he can come up with. For now... NO

Yeah, I'd limit it to the popular series. Then maybe have a general 'medley' section for non-popular series and medleys that span series. CV and MM sound good, and i would probably add Mario to the mix as well. Maybe also Donkey Kong and Chronosaga (CT, RD, CC), though those are kinda iffy. Also, I imagine you'll insist that if FF gets a medley section, so does PS. I can design graphics for the added sections. You've seen the one I cooked up for FF so you know how much I suck ( ). EDIT: just thought up some more. Seiken Dentetsu, Metroid, Street Fighter, and Zelda.

Track list: FF4 - Battle FF4 - Boss Battle FF6 - Battle FF6 - Atma Weapon FF - Victory. I'd use FF1 (since that seems to be the 'default' lately) or FF4 (since there's not many of those on the site. ) Although I strongly recommend that we make an FF Medley/General section (so it can include preludes, chocobos, etc.)

The mixing here needs a lot of work. I think the problem is there simply isn't enough treble to carry the melody, though I could be wrong. Other than that I love the remix, but that one problem is very distracting. I'm gonna give it a NO for now. If the remiser re-submitted a remastered version, this would be getting a definite yes, though.

Ick. I'm friggin tired of hearing Fruityloops samples. Seriously. Get better sounds - the sample quality really kills this remix. And what were you trying to accomplish by adding StarCraft sounds? They don't fit the original song, and they seem out of place in the remix. Vote: NO

I felt like the song had gone on long enough at the 1 minute marker. So I think you can guess how I felt at the 4 minute marker. I'm torn here, since a lot of effort obviously went in to delivering a quality mix and changing things up to keep it interesting. But it isn't kept interesting enough. Yes, I know the pacman tune is hard to remix because it's so short, so I feel like I shouldn't be knocking this remix because it end up being too repetative. But I guess, in the end, there are some songs that just cant be extended out to 4 minutes without grating. NO

I got a 404.

I really wanted to like this one. It started out great, then... what happened? The transition into the bat battle song was annoying as hell, and the bat song section wasn't all that great either. My problem here is that it gets very confused. There's almost too much going on in different sections, but none of it compliments eachother. Like, around the 1:00 mark, I started wondering if thepervious Vampire Killer section was an entirely different song, and that's not good. So bring it into focus a little, work on the transitions, and cut out some of the useless repetition. But for now, I honestly can't vote Yes on this one. Vote: NO

I pretty much agree with what's been said. Though the bass really grated when it started out solo, the other instruments came in and it was all good. I wish it were longer, but there's enough development here to make it worthwhile on it's own. The only thing I really don't like is the unresolved ending. But overall, this gets a YES.

Guitar sample sucks, drums are way off, it's really repetative, and there's some very akward breaks in it (though, like Rob's cut off problem, that might have been my download... don't think so though) No, the song doesn't cut off, but it does fade out, which IMHO is only a notch above cutting off. And although this usually isn't my basis for judging, the fact that this song is a stylistic repeat of Chikusho Sound Team's remix of the same song and therefore covers absolutely no new ground is just the icing on the cake. Vote: NO

Bass is way too loud, samples need lots of work, and it just sounds kinda... messy somehow. There's some variation and attempt to keep it interesting, but not enough to keep it from dragging. On the plus side, there really is some worthwhile stuff here, and the voice samples are placed well. I'd give it a Yes, overall. It has enough merits to outweigh the problems. And for future reference, please don't use a site that requires the judges to register in order to download your song. You may not realize it, but it really is inconsiderate (and I almost refraned from judging it until I noticed Rob posted it on his FTP). If you need a host, try www.vgmix.com. VOTE: YES

Some parts were a drum loop dropped over the original. For future reference, don't do that. At least change the synth around some. But in this case there were enough original parts to make it work. Other complaints include the fact that it could really use more layers, and the transitions are iffy at very best. This squeaks by, but barely, IMHO. VOTE: YES

Got this song a while back when it was released as a PMM "freebe." Though I'm not completely satisfied with ome of the guitar work, it's still pretty amazing. VOTE: YES