DarkeSword

I only know Reuben through his music. I never talked to the guy, never really interacted with him. What the hell am I supposed to say? "He was a great guy?" Maybe he was, but without firsthand experience, me saying that is disingenuous. I've heard he was a great guy, so that's all I can say. How is anyone supposed to pay tribute to the other aspects of his life if they know little about it? Honestly SCG, I've noticed that you tend to get indignant and upset on other people's behalf far too much, and tend to express those feelings quite vehemently. You're overreacting and getting angry at people for no real reason. Cut it out.

Just the other day I was listening to some music and one of Reuben's pieces popped up on my playlist; I said to myself, "Wow, who did this?" I made a note to definitely check out Rueben's music. While I didn't know him personally, I do know for sure that we've lost a great artist and a great guy. I'm sorry for your loss. Reuben won't be forgotten; not by a long shot.

Just wanna throw this in: private servers, despite the massive amount of them running, are illegal, so specific info pertaining to getting onto private servers (including links) is probably not allowed on these forums.

"Gee whiz, Mr. DarkeSword! How does the Judge's queue work?" "Well Timmy, sit back and I'll tell you!" There's always a number of mixes in our private forum at any time, given the fact that we are constantly receiving submissions. Larry posts mixes to our forum from the Submissions Inbox and we sticky the threads for mixes that have been on the panel for a while (month+), and mixes that are split decisions. Once a group of mixes is on the panel, we generally judge them in whatever order we feel like. I know I personally used to try to knock out votes for mixes of songs I knew well, and would save the more obscure stuff for later when I had time to digest the source tune (this is not so much the case anymore). One thing I do do these days is go for closeout votes first. If there's a mix that's already got two NOs (a 2N mix) or three YESes (a 3Y mix), I'll hit that first to hopefully get it out of the way. In any case, there is a priority system, in that we sticky older mixes first, and we generally encourage each other to vote on those older tracks, but there's nothing specifically in place that forces us to vote on those before more recent submissions.

This is really quiet..like...really quiet. Needs to be brought up overall, I think. I like your string work and the balance. There's a nice dreamy sound to this. The descending piano is tricky; there are a few times where the notes are repeated in succession with the same velocity, and that kind of breaks the downward motion of the line. I realize that may be part of the source, but you might be better served tweaking the velocities a bit. A minor gripe, but something that stuck out for me. New Age drums don't work. I don't think the kick is deep enough, and that tom sound you use sticks out too much, especially with the kind of reverb you have on them. The cymbal/tambourine/hat would be better if it weren't such a sharp sound. It cuts through the soundscape too much. The arrangement and interpretation isn't bad, though. Nice work on that. Gets to be a little aimless at times though; maybe that's characteristic of the genre? Work on the execution. NO

God these source tunes are so lo-fi. I hope someone smacked the guy who implemented these into the game upside the head. Anyway. Hm. Groovy beats, nice variation. I think the voice-clips usage is pretty neat, actually. Nice texture and synth design. Not too sure about the balance some sections; particularly 1:14, when the lead comes in, I feel like it's fighting for attention with the background wah-synth. It's a minor gripe. I'm going with YES (borderline); if any other Js have significant issues with production, I'm down with changing my vote.

Reverse cymbal is distracting and sticks out. Drums are too loud and the rhythm is awkward. There's not much balance between instruments; our pads and choir stick out too much. The string pads used as lead instruments have a really weak attack too. The arrangement is pretty aimless. I don't think you've made any effort here to find a hook from your source tune. You tried to write an "epic lullaby;" a lullaby needs to have some kind of memorable melody. This has none. I think you really need to head back to the drawing board on this. Analyze your source tunes, find the hook, and work around it. Hit up the Remixing forum and the WIP&C forum to get advice and feedback. NO

As of this moment, I'm also all caught up with the queue.

I suppose I should chime in on the revised copy? I've got NOTHING ELSE TO JUDGE, SO WHY NOT? Anyway, it's a solid piece of work and the production is cleaned up nicely. How 'bout dem trombones, eh? EH? YES

Chorused piano makes it sound like a pop version of "Walt Disney Pictures Presents: Animal Crossing: The Movie." I'm waiting for Peabo Bryson to start singing. This is a good thing. High strings sound a little shrill when coming in, but it all fits with the style and they settle into the soundscape nicely as the song progresses. Nice texture throughout, really laid back. Great harmonica stuff near the end! YES

I dunno, I'm still having the same issues with the articulations, particularly in the bass instruments. The definition is just not at the level it needs to be to really establish the kind of pulse you're looking for. The percussion is also kind of quiet throughout the piece. I'm also not too hot on your brass samples; trumpets sound blaring and start blurring together in the end. I do like the writing overall; the interpretation and movement throughout the piece is really nice. The transitions aren't the best, but they're serviceable. Andy's right about the ending though; it sounds really weak. You need stronger low end there; it sounds thin with just high strings and woodwinds. Something powerful and deep would serve you better. Anyway, still a lot of production issues. Keep at it, I guess, and if you decide not to resub, good luck with future subs. NO resub

Guitar performances totally rock my socks, so nice job there. I do think you need to interpret the source tune a little more; I like your original sections, but the don't have much to do with the source tune, do they? They're nice, but let's hear some more creative takes on the game material. Certainly not a bad piece of music, to be sure. Quite fun actually. Just needs a little more. NO, RESUB PLZ

Man, why is this not even two minutes? It's so groovy, you could add in like a guitar solo or something. Oh well. In any case I really like the interpretation and the groove; I think the production crits stand, so I'd like to see those taken care of. I do like the part where the kick starts dropping on every downbeat; a simple, subtle change that drives the song forward. Let's hear a little more of that kind of stuff. NO but resub plz

QFE. What's up with that, man? Anyway "rockin'" is definitely the word. I could definitely get into a wicked dodgeball game with this music. Great percussion work. As for the sax, it's good, but I feel like the articulations could have been more defined to help the listener get the rhythm of the melody down. Whatever; it's just a very minor gripe from a former trumpet player. Anyway, great take on the source. Energetic and fun. YES

OMG I used to play this game ALL THE TIME. The drumbeat is right on; I think the hip-hop style works. The problem is that there's no strong bassline working in tandem with the beats to provide that strong base for the song to be built on. You need something meaty down there. Anyway, :32 with the sustained brass and stabbing strings sounds really muffled. You need to EQ that to get some higher frequencies. The brass chords just aren't working; they sound too muddy. Make the chords more spread out across the octaves and turn down the volume. I like the guitar, it adds a nice flair to the soundscape, but what's the deal with it cutting out like that near the end? Sounds sloppy. This piece has a lot of mid-range sounds, but not enough high freq stuff (hence the muffliness), or enough low parts (hence the emptiness). Don't cut out your bassline so much, and try some new rhytms than just what's in the source. NO

Anyone else see this movie? I thought it was phenomenal. I grew up on Disney movies, so it's nice to see Disney poking fun at all their old clichés. Amy Adams was perfect as a misplaced Disney Princess in the real world, and her singing voice is great to boot. The music was awesome, the dialogue was hilarious, and the effects were great. Am I the only one who went to see this?

Nom Nom Nom

Nice integration of the percussion with what was going on in the song. Always nice to hear someone take the percussion out of that background timekeeper role effectively. Texture is great all around, I love the chip stuff with the guitars. Pads are appropriately quiet; any louder and it'd be messy. i liek it YES

Right after that first pitch bend in the harpsichord, where the kick drops in, I actually smiled and went "oooh!" Nice. I like the variation and builds in this piece; you don't fall into the trap of repeating stuff over and over and over again just to establish a groove. Things are there just long enough and we switch gears. That's not to say I wouldn't like to hear like a 15 minute extended mix of this where I could just veg out to the beats. XD Anyway, nice work dude. The beats are hot and the synths are cool. WUT WUT

Echoing Larry and Andy here; the texture is thin and weak. Where's the bass? This needs more meat on it. Andy said big chord motions; I'm gonna agree with that. Arrangement is not bad though; I don't think it's too spastic, but some more variation aside from simply passing the melody around would be nice. Percussion isn't bad; that drumkit sounds familiar. You've got a ways to go with this one. One more time. For the bass. NO

Just wanna address this, as I have no time for vote at the moment. We don't judge your effort, or the "shear [sic] amount of work" you put into the song. All we judge is the end product, and if we collectively feel the end product suffers from medlyitis and doesn't jive with our standards and criteria, then we'll reject it.

First half is kind of messy. The samples are drowned in reverb and the articulations are weak. Not enough definition or balance between your sounds. It's a mish-mash. I actually liked the second half of the song with the samples and percussion and stuff, but the orchestral stuff still suffers from the problems in the first half. Also, the percussion has no bassline working with it to establish the kind of groove you're looking for. Low end sounds empty. NO

Agreed. There's a sparseness in the beginning; you could have done better with a deeper texture, even as we go through the song proper. Not sure about the clarinet countermelody in the first verse, especially at 2:02; something weird going on there harmonically with the voice and clarinet. As for the vocals, I'm ambivalent. The voice is nice, but I'm neither a fan of the lyrics or how they fit in with the melody; phrases seem to end earlier than expected. The performance does have kind of a disjointed quality as well. Perhaps that's a stylistic decision? I can't say for sure, but I think something less rigid would contrast better over the stiffer backing track. NO resub (is that terrible of me to say, considering this is the 3rd time this is on the panel? In my defense, this is the first time I've voted on this piece. :\ )

Tricky decision here for me. I think that I'm in agreement with Larry here though. I don't really have qualms about the production--Vinnie nails it with his comment about it being "consistently lo-fi,"--it gives the piece a more intimate sound. But I'm not really feeling the medlyitis; the transitions were more or less "stop-and-start." This could have been broken down into three or four standalone songs. There were also a lot of tempo issues; sounded like the drummer was speeding up and slowing down at times, and the guitars didn't lock-in right away. Overall though, good performances, and not a bad interpretation. I just feel like this piece needs to be more cohesive, with some more attention paid to locking in on the tempo and not trying to cram too many ideas in. NO resub

The whole thing has a really groovy vibe to it, and I like the texture. Production is clean, and the instruments sit where they should. My problem is the repetition. The percussion simply does not let up at all, and continues throughout the song with out any real change, save for adding some 8th note hi-hat work. No rhythmic variation, no cuts, nothing. There should be a little more interaction there, more integration. NO resub plz