Ryuko

Amazing. Just wow. High quality everything - samples, arranging, content. I'm actually speechless to critique this mix. Beeeyewtiful work. -R

If you focus on the profanity, then yeah, you're gonna hear too much of it in the song. It's there, but there's not as much as you may think there may be. Any time you focus in on something, it becomes more obvious; it's how things like that go. So, focus on the profanity if you must, but have you even looked at the rest of the lyrics? Holy shit, the swearing can't degrade rhyme and flow of that caliber, beeytch. Example: Hard.core. I'm a slam poet myself, and while I tend to stay away from the profanity... wow, wait, it doesn't seem there is any in this verse! Anyway, what I was going to say is I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who can flow like this. Kudos, Zyko, much kudos indeed. As for the song, it's definitely one of my favorite things to come from OCR, and I don't even like hip-hop. The rhyme is infectious, the beat is kickarse, and Zyko's mastery of the english language is amazing. Easily a 10/10 in my book.

Gonna counteract my original statement. A decent span of time after I originally commented, I queued this song up again. It's awesome. Anything I said negatively just through at how well this mix *works*. Good job.

I love it.. but wasn't it originally longer?

Feh. Right out of Trigun, huh? I bet half of you guys have never even *heard* of Tull (thankyouthankyouthankyou djp for referencing them, I can definitely hear the influence). And besides, the intro chord progression is Norwegian Wood. It is! Really, listen to it, sing along. "I once met a girl, or should I say, she once met me." It's the *same progression*. I'm not sure if Mitsuda and Uematsu noticed it, but it even feels like Norwegian Wood. (this isn't to say I don't like the Trigun OST - but it's much more Tullish than Gunnish) Good points... the melody at 1:08. Feels *very* Tullish. Thoroughly enjoy that one, there. The flute sound is quite excellent. The bass line is good - I'm glad you didn't just opt for a I - V - I and take the easy way out. A little more variation in the bass would have been nice. Neutral points... well, some of the notes in the acoustic guitar throw me for a loop. I can't quite figure out why they're there, but they make sense. The drums are nice, but I'm missing some variation there, and some extra instruments would have fleshed it out a bit more, I believe. Possibly (if you're counting it in 6/8, which I'm assuming is what it is) shekere and afuche with accents on one and four, tambourine on four, cowbell playing one three four six one three five (gogo bells would work too, low on the first half, high on the second), maybe some timbale fills... percussion wise, I think it works as it is right now, but could be improved. (It's entirely possible the way I assumed the time signature was will make no sense in the morning, anyway) To be honest with you, this feels like something that would be in a modern video game. I mean, the sounds and everything. I don't like guitar when it's not played (I'm assuming this wasn't actually played on a guitar live, it feels and sounds too strange). It feels like it should be direct from a video game, rather than a remix. Almost sounds like one of the themes from Xenogears, but I can't quite put my finger on what it feels like. Anyway, I appreciate the mix for what it is, regardless of how much I don't like the song itself, but even so, this feels very repetitive. I know there's not much subject matter, but it just has a feeling of repetition. And the ending... Tull stylish, but very abrupt. It just *ends*. As a guitarist, this feels very natural, but I don't particularly like. It perhaps a fingerstyle run of the chords with the melody might work? It sounds good, but in my opinion, it's no more than mediocre. Not awful, but not your best work. (all, again, in my opinion)

Nice intro. Great use of ambient noise. I love the lead that comes in at 00:15. Fits oh-so-nicely. Bass coming in is fine as well. The percussion seems a bit strange at 00:30, but I think that might just be my ears. When the kick and snare come in at 00:37, it evolves. I like the slow building of the melody. That works really well. 1:01. The synth behind the melody is kind of strange, as is the reverse cymbal at 1:09. 1:16 - AH GOD, dude, I love this part. It's awesome. Everything from here on is great, except that second chord in the progression - it has a wierd tone. It works, but it's just not my taste. It actually works v. well, just not something I'm used to. Nice use of dynamics and percussion coming back to the quiet section at 1:31, though I think a cymbal roll would have worked well there. Percussion at 1:46 - woo, I love it. It fits so well. The lead at 2:02 is a wierd noise, but again, it flows well. The noises in the background are great - really exemplifies the fact this is ambient. 2:32 - returning to the the chordal theme again. I like it, especially with the percussion there. The gong entering into the quiet part again works almost better than a cymbal roll. 2:51 - that sound is freaky. Kinda strange. 3:01 - nice false buildup. 3:03 - the beat oriented melody is awesome. I love to see mixers experimenting more with this. It's strong, v. strong, gives it a unique feel. No complaints nor comments up until 4:26, everything works fine and is v. aurally pleasing. 4:26 - That reverse cymbal again. It's so wierd! The way it ends with the ambient noise and the lightly fading melody is kind of cliche, but it's so good. Overall, amazing piece. More than made it onto my playlists - it's at the top for a while. Good work, SGX.

I think I might be the only person in this thread to blatantly go as far as to say I don't like this. First of all, the standard story so far complaint - if this isn't Hymn of the Fayth, then I have no clue what it is, and I only would have been able to tell that it was said Hymn from the sample (which fits strangely well, but gets semi-repetitive after the third time around) taken from the game. This has more feel of an original - granted, it does stick to a basic theme, but that basic theme hasn't even been touched, it's direct from the game. For the rest of this post, I consider this song to be an original. The beginning is beautiful. It's the one part of the piece I enjoy. Up until the swoop at 0:44, it's a great piece. I love it. I'd love to see the rest of the piece be orchestral. The guitar somewhat turns me off - maybe because it sounds conspicuously like Metallica's "No Leaf Clover", and it's only two chords that clash with the hymn when it first comes in at 1:30. The string solo at 1:43 is nice, but it's so *random*! Where does it come from? It branches out of the Hymn, which is so simple, and then just goes ballistically out of control, which the piece never does again. The guitar solo after said string solo fits, but again, those two same guitar chords with an overuse of distortion underneath make a return appearence. It reclaims my interest again at 2:39. I love the melodic percussion - sounds kind of like a glock with the reverb reduced. Up until 3:13, it's great. No complaints. Something about the key change at 3:19, along with the piano solo over it throws me off as well. The repetition of the hymn is kind of strange, but the guitar following it enhances it. 3:54 is where it all comes loose for me. If this is going to be a guitar solo, it should not be in the background. The combination of whatever effects besides distortion and the low volume render it hard to hear the excellent guitar work (kudos to the guitarist!), and the hymn playing over the guitar makes it even worse. The slide at the end from the guitar works, but the piano chord at the end leaves a sense of non-closure, as if there's something to follow it. Overall, good piece, but way too random for my taste. Could be just personal preference, but even with all the arranging done, I'd consider this more of an original than a remix, and without the hymn, I'd consider it much better. Excellent guitar work, though, however undershadowed it is.

Beautiful. There's not even words I can think of to describe it. How you envisioned this from the original CutMan theme is something I can't even comprehend. Amazing work.

::wince:: I'm gonna have to agree... I really would have liked to see something better than this for Forever Rachele. I mean, the original song is great on its own, this is a decent mix, but it almost seems to ruin the original melody. For a first time job, I'd give it a 4/10. But since I'm so attached to the original song, I'm gonna have to go with a 3. =/ I can't even add suggestions for improvement, because while it's a mediocre mix, I personally just don't like any of it.

There's a few wierd notes in there, but otherwise, it's an excellent remix. I can't really say much more than that, but an example of those wierd notes would be 00:30 - 00:45. I don't know if that was the intent, but they don't seem to fit in. I was thinking perhaps you wanted to depart from the original, and it does, but it's... strange. Otherwise, good job. 8/10.