DarkeSword

I think this is great. I like how you mixed NES style sounds with acoustic elements. Personally I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because the soundscape isn't completely dependent on the NES sounds, and they are processed, to a certain extent. As for the arrangement, it's not the most liberal thing I've heard, but there's some nice embellishments with the guitar, and I dig the woodwind stuff. This piece has a really folksy, intimate kind of quality to it. I think the percussion is appropriately subdued as well. YES

Mario Kart 64 - Party in the Snowland!

The articulations on your moving lines are very weak, which lends the piece an anemic quality. No pun intended. Samples just don't seem to be balanced right; there are a lot of sections where the strings seem too loud, or the percussion is too quiet, or the bells stick out too much, etc etc. Not really sure about the adaptation, to be honest. The instrumentation is really similar to the original, but the samples aren't as good. The melody never really catches my attention, and this piece just feels like it's going through the motions. It's interpretive, no doubt, but not really all that interesting. There are also some harmonic ideas that I don't think really work, like the transition at 2:24. Not really sure what you could do with this one. NO

Yeah, even Winamp does it. I use MP3BookHelper for mass tagging. Pretty much anything that allows you to tag with ID3v2 lets you type in any genre you want.

chumble spuzz wins at the universe. edit: I can't stop laughing at "Big Giant Mills"

Pretty neat actually! It's got a nice rockin' sound to it. I like. However, we cannot ignore the fact that it doesn't really use the source; it's another song that's extremely similar to the source. An admirable acheivement, but ultimately not what we're looking for. I'm keeping this. NO

This song really reminds me of Moby's "Porcelain," particularly the bit with the filtered vocals. That's a good thing, because I really love that song. In any case, your vocals are actually pretty well performed, which is interesting considering they're not part of your original vision for this mix. However, I'm not really fan of the rest of your soundscape. The percussion is sitting in a weird place in this mix; too far back and it's got some weird reverb on it. Percussion in a song like this should be your anchor; centered, with presence without overpowering, and just a touch of reverb, no more. I think that the sustained strings could be better written too. They're mid-range, occupying the same range and your vocals; you might be better served bring them down or up in octave, quieting them a little. Try writing your chords at greater intervals; span two octaves with just four notes, and again, keep it quieter. Those sustained chords aren't interesting enough as is to be as loud as they are. Also, use a better string sample. The one you have sounds really phasy. I think other judges can speak more towards production issues, so I'll let them take care of that. All in all though, a great first effort. Hope to hear more. NO resub plz

This mix feels like a lot of initial statements without further developemen. "Here's an idea. Okay here's another one. Try this one." There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but they don't get the attention or development the deserve. The piano in particular really disappoints me; you comes in with that, you could really layer in a nice non-gating bassline, something funky to fit with the percussion and syncopation of the chords. It's so lo-fi, and it builds and stutters out nicely, but it really feels like it could come in NOT lo-fi along with some other accompniment. This could take on a house feel. There's a sparseness that pervades this mix. So many sections are just lacking in a meaty bassline. The arrangement is also kind of repetitive; you could have utilized more of the source. Not a bad sub, but a NO nonetheless.

So yeah, to sum up a bit.This is a weird mix for me. I like the raw, angry, chippy sound to it (and unlike a pure chiptune, this has a lot of processing and effects that bring it up), but I'm not really keen on how the source was used. I like the gating effects, but I would have loved to hear more of the first part of the Mysterious Woods theme, as opposed to the climbing notes from the second half. In any case, nice job. YES

Trying to figure out the Zelda timeline has always seemed like a waste of time to me. All I know is that Ocarina of Time is the first one. After that, whatever, it's just the same legend told over and over again, but differently each time. As far as Majora's Mask goes, from a game design standpoint, it's a brilliant piece of work and very fun. My only problem with the game was that I felt "punished" for doing complete saves, and I hated having to go back and redo things just because I restarted the three-day cycle. That's pretty much the reason I never finished the game; my own fault, really. I think that out of all the Zelda games, it's the handheld ones that have always held a special place in my (piece of) heart; my first Zelda game was Link's Awakening, and the Oracle games, Minish Cap, and the recent Phantom Hourglass have all been incredible experiences. Four Swords Adventures for Gamecube was also a sorely underrated game; the single-player experience and its emphasis on formations is incredibly fun.

Dunno if we have a policy concerning redistribution of OCR albums. Let me check with djpretzel.

I really dig the groove in the beginning; there's a wicked vibe going on. I agree though, that it sort of gets killed with messiness when we get the detuned piano. I can kind of see what you're going for with that in the minor section at the start, but here are some suggestions, mostly fror the right hand part: I think you'd be better served with a drier sound in the piano, so less reverb for one; keep the detuned sound, but bring it up an octave or two and add a delay effect; and for a little fun, put a high-pass filter on it along with a little distortion. You'll get a nice eerie high piano sound. The synth strings playing the prelude melody lack definition and end up bleeding together a bit on the moving lines; be careful of that. As for the arpeggiating line, it gets old fast, so try to change that up a little by automating the duration of the individual notes to change over time (i.e. legato to staccato and back again). Might get some interesting results with a chance to fill things in with some more beatwork. So yeah, less reverb would be good all around I think; go for a cleaner sound and tighten up the percussion. Not a bad sub, but a long ways to go. Good luck. NO

Feel like all I ever do these days is echo Larry and Andy. Your acoustic guitar sample sounds horribly fake and needs to be sequenced with humanization in mind. I don't understand the point in using such a warbly background pad when you could do so much better other things like sustained strings, choir, etc. The reverb on the percussion is just too much; there's a horrible echo effect on the clap; sound like the reverb was compressed. The overdrive guitar just doesn't work. Everything around 4:30 starts sounding ridiculously messy. One of the biggest problems with this piece is just too much reverb on everything. The piece is soaking in it in a very bad way. The acoustic guitar has these low strums that bleed together and cause a lot of destructive, dissonant interference in the low frequencies that end up sounding jarring. You need to think a lot more about balance between your instruments, get some better samples, and not use reverb so much. And believe me that's something coming from me, because I abuse reverb like no man should. NO

This feels...anemic. Those kick hits need to be really deep, and the bassline really needs to be prevalent here to establish a solid groove. Andy's right with the comment about it sounding thin. There's a sparseness here; you need to fill out your midrange way more. The sustained pads you have are far too quiet compared to everything else. You did what you could with the source; there's not much there to mix. The dynamics are pretty flatline; might want to think more about development and buildups. There's a lot of repetition. :\ NO

I'm pretty familiar with the source; I've got the game and play as Luigi for the sole reason of listening to his theme; it really is the best song in the game. This is pretty much the same as the in-game song. It's not different enough, and the fact that the original has better brass makes this a hard sell. Not bad for a recreation, but we're looking for more than just a recreation. You really gotta make the piece your own, not just riff on the original. NO

SM64 has one thing over Galaxy, imo: controlling Mario. Maybe I just played way too much SM64 back in the day, but it's annoying in Galaxy when I slam the stick in a direction and Mario takes a second or two to get started. Can't do turn-around jumps as easily either (run one direction, slam the stick in the other direction and jump). Maybe I just need to get used to it, but so far Galaxy's Mario isn't nearly as acrobatic 64's Mario.

Rather crude, but it's a start.

Ocarina of Time was the best yet, but it's certainly not the best since.

WTF why is this thread still alive I second the motion.

Forgive me for being glib here, but Larry and Andy generally summed it up (Jimmy on the other hand contributed NOTHING). This is a nice atmospheric piece, but it simply doesn't use enough of the material you've said you're arranging. You've got to use more of it, especially when your piece is nearly six and a half minutes. NO *BGC edit* ur mom, darke

The percussion doesn't really sit well in this mix. It's lacking in definition, drowning in the pads and strings; percussion in this context really needs to be a solid anchor, not something far away in the background. I think a lot of your lead instruments are lacking in definition too; this is bad, coming from me, because I generally like glassy leads. I think this piece needs a more solid direction; right now it just floats around aimlessly. Ground the piece with your percussion and a bassline. Also, the source is not as complex as you think it is. They're not all different melodies going on at the same time; they're different parts working together to support and embellish the melody. Try to break that down and don't feel obligated to use everything. Some of it is just comping chords, and you can always write your own version of that. NO

With a title like "Ticking Clock," I expected more of a pulse. The bass drum doesn't begin to provide that. You need something deep here; low pizzicato cello or SOMETHING. There's not a lot of dynamic contrast here, which makes it all sound a little boring. Like Andy said, you need some more motion here. If there's not enough material in the source, go ahead and hunt around in the other tracks from the game; you might find something that meshes well, and if it doesn't mesh perfectly, make it. NO

Also borderline; the banjo (?) feels panned too far. It's also a bit short, but almost makes up for it with an organic, creative arrangement. Almost. Ultimately, I think it's just too short and doesn't go everywhere it could. There's a lot of potential here. NO resub

I guess life after Rachel is a life trying to fill in the holes. THE HOLES SHE LEFT IN MY HEART Yeah man, nice song, but you gotta use more of the source. NO

I can't imagine that pumping effect being intentional unless this was some kind of electronic mix. I was waiting for some wicked beats to drop in and explode my face. Alas, my face is intact. As for the arrange, it's pretty straight forward; a lot of sustained chords and unison melody. There was a bit with the harp that I liked, and the bit near end where the rhythmic statement gets passed around was a nice touch, but ultimately it just plods along. NO