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Everything posted by DarkeSword
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First things first, thanks for posting the original for comparison. This is solid stuff. Very enjoyable; you had me dancing in my seat. Nice variation throughout the mix. Malcos is right however; drums can be a bit loud at times, in comparison to the strings. Watch the balance. Not much else to say that's already been said. Nice work. YES
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*NO* Final Fantasy 11 'Memory Accurange'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Currently grabbing the sheet music; if someone can try to identify the originals used in here, I'll upload the sheet music to the FTP and we can compare the notation. EDIT: Don't even bother. This a straight playthough of the sheet music. There's not even a hint of deviation from the sheet music version. Judges can contact me about the sheet music if they wish to compare for themselves, but rest assured guys, I sat down and followed the entire piece along with the sheet music. It's exactly the same. NO OVERRIDE -
Percussion is really poor too. Hate to judge it this way, but there's not much else to say, except that the timing is really awkward thoughout the entire mix. Sounds a lot like you used a keyboard to play the syncopated lines. In agreement. NO
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*NO* Luigi's Mansion 'the anti-ignorance'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
HMMMM Yeah. It's nice and all; there's a flow there, but it's not particularly tight. Unfortunately, it's not much a remix of the Luigi's Mansion. It's just there to be rapped over. Nice joke about Mustin though. XD It's cool, but not much of a Luigi's Mansion remix. Percussion coulda been tricked out at some point too. Sorry man. NO -
OCR01227 - *YES* Final Fantasy 9 'Shepherd Won't Alone'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Alright, you've managed to use your sounds really well. They're not the most amazing, but you've put them together in such a way that a pleasant texture comes a across. Very nice! The arrangement is quite nice. I agree with Prot about the variation; good stuff through and through. The transition at 2:10 is kinda jarring, but it's followed up with a nice execution. Everything melds together nicely and sounds full and grandiose. Nice flute work too. Yeah, as Larry says, no way I can 'hate on this.' Nice work. YES -
*NO* Legend of Zelda 'Medley for Symphonic Orchestra'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Unfortunately, this is a pretty good concept marred by some shoddy execution. Sounds like it's run straight through the synthesizer. Not a lot of attention paid to the balance between the instruments throughout the piece; like Prot said, poor mastering. The samples sound unprocessed and don't mesh well. The whole thing comes off sounding very unnatural; but since the piece makes an attempt at an organic sound by using 'acoustic' instruments, it's gotta have that humanized element. There are just too many points where I feel like I'm playing a PC game from the EARLY '90s. Such a shame though; it's a damn good arrangement once it gets going. I disagree with Prot's claim of 'simplistic notation.' There's a lot of nice melodic play going on that really shows an understanding of the source material. NO, but I want you to work on sampling and mixing and try for a resubmission. -
OCR01226 - *YES* Chrono Trigger 'Rhodes to the Past'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Argh, so torn... Okay, so it's more than a cover, but there's not that much arrangement going on here. The sound and texture is really nice, so the mixer gets major points for that. Like Prot said, cool compression stuff on the drums. I can hear a lot of the parts from the original; not just the melody, but also some of the countermelody stuff. You gotta watch out for this kind of thing. I do feel however, that there's a lot of skill shown in the mixing aspect. Whole thing sounds really clear and clean. Percussion exhibits very tight beats, and the rhodes stuff is great. I think that while this song doesn't have the most amazing thinking-outside-the-box arrangement, there's a lot of personality put into it that presents the material in a fresh and interesting way. The strong execution balances out the less-than-amazing concept. YES -
Vocals are really terrible. You've got a lot of intonation issues going on; things like that can only be fixed with lots of voice training etc. Lyrics are also corny, typical, and all around bad. The guitar playing is pretty nice though, and there's a good groove and texture going on once the percussion comes in. However, that's not enough to negate the terrible vocals. NO
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OCR01095 - Chrono Trigger "Blue Skies over Guardia"
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in ReMix Reviews & Comments
I assure you, I'm 100% man. -
OCR01224 - *YES* Mega Man 3 'Cataclysmic Clash'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
It's official. I hate all Middle-eastern people now Well it's a lot better than "SUPER FIGHTING ROBOT!....MEGAMAN!" ad infinitum. Also, I'm South Asian, not Middle Eastern. Bitch. -
*NO* Super Mario RPG 'Geno's Forest ROBOVOICE'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
uhhhh... Yeah, Coma basically summed it up. Might have been interesting if you'd actually attempted to arrange the song instead of relying on an already used gimmick. Good for novelty, but not much else. NO -
*NO* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 'UnderWater'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Man I hated that level in TMNT. That whole game was hard though; farthest I ever got was beating MekaTurtle and getting to the fourth world. Meh. Anyway. Yeah it's fairly close to the original. I think that sometimes the piece just gets too crowded; there's not much attention paid to balance here. Drums and guitar and everything else; they're all vying for my attention, but I don't know what to listen to. 2:02 is a pretty nice section, but unfortunately the whole piece is kind of washed out and muddy sounding. Crazy drumming like that usually only works when you have a real drummer; that's uber sequenced and overly complicated. Tone it back a bit. NO -
OCR01224 - *YES* Mega Man 3 'Cataclysmic Clash'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Dear God these lyrics are brilliant. Appropriately campy; it's MEGAMAN! Yeah, quite nice all around. Guitar work is good, voice isn't bad at all. Vocal harmony is right on. Very nice. Medleyitis does describe it, but that's quite minor. YES INDEED! -
Wow, you definitely don't want to use Roland Piano for this. Try NS Piano or something. Way to bright here; sounds like some construction workers smashing a piano with hammers. This sounds very mechanical too; as I mentioned when reviewing another piano piece, the human touch is crucial in solo piano productions. This piece lacks that human touch. There are portions where I feel like one person could not possible play this piece on a piano. Lots of smashing block chords everywhere; it's a bit irritating. Work on humanization and organic...ness....yeah. NO
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That drumbeat just doesn't change, and it's a bit loud compared to everything else. Aside from that, the arrangement is pretty static. There's a nice texture, but this piece doesn't really go anywhere. NO
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*NO* Final Fantasy 8 'Time Differential'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
I agree with Vig. You could have done a lot better than just using those choruses. Some nice string work or something would have worked a lot better. The low bass stuff is really nice, but unfortunately it doesn't balance out with the higher stuff and the chorus. NO -
Hooray for drumloops. Not much to this. The bass is, like Vig said, too low. If it had some more body to it, it'd sound nice, but it's so negligible at the moment. The synths are kind of thin and weak sounding, and they sound like you just layered as many effects onto them as you could to make them sound interesting. The song really repeats a lot without much variation too. You need to vary up your sounds more, and work on a more interesting arrangement. NO
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*NO* Kirby's Dream Land 2 'Flying Over Dream Land'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Eek...I can get better sounds out of WinGroove. This sounds very amateurish. Cymbal hits on every measure; whole note string chords; snare hits on every beat; no harmony to speak of. Rather repetitive too. Too bad though; I really love Coo's Theme. NO -
OCR01219 - *YES* Chrono Trigger 'Calamitous Judgment'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
WTF IS THIS SHIT? Oh. Pretty good stuff man. Nice work. Not much to say aside from nice sounds and a good groove. SURE -
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT YOU CRAZY PERSON ... >_>
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Christ, Larry. What the hell? Anyway, this song has timing issues in SPADES (yes, SPADES!). Mostly in the first half. I actually kind of like the low-q recording in the beginning; makes it feel a bit old-time and organic. However the timing issues can't be overlooked; it feels like you played the guitar part without any kind of accompniment, and then added percussion et al afterwards. There's a difference between sounding organic and just being off. Things just don't match up. The section at 2:52 however simply rocks my socks. Very nice ending too. I'm going to give this mix a borderline NO. I really feel that this piece can really shine if you sit down with a metronome or something and redo those parts with the questionable timing. I really hope you take the feedback to heart and try for a resubmit. I enjoyed your concept, and I want to see the execution done as best as it can be done. GO FOR THE GOLD!
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Whoa...GM... Yeah, I agree with Larry about the deceptively sophisticated. There's no other way to describe this. However, I'm inclined to agree with Vig too; it seems to be needlessly dense sometimes; it's numbing. After a while it became a blur of boops and beeps; I had a hard time staying focused on this. It seems to just get more complicated as it goes, and compounded with the wonky GM sounds. Maybe I'm not artistic enough to understand this piece; or maybe I am, but just don't find it to be very compelling. Either way, this mix gets a NO. edit: wow, that last bit really makes me sound like an asshole.
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There's some kind of CRAZY detuning going on here. Some intonation issues around the beginning part, but I think that's what the style calls for. For something as zany as this, I was really expecting some kind of tripped out industrial percussion sequence. I think that there's definitely a lack of cohesion here; the song doesn't really go anywhere. It just sort of starts, plays, and ends. Not really evocative, which is important in this style. I wasn't scared or freaked out, just waiting for something interesting to happen. NO