Digital Coma

LOUD Listening to the original on this one was very helpful, as I discovered there's not much to it at all in the typical RE fashion; flute tremolo, repeating piano chords, wind and rain noise: it's basically an ambient interlude. There was not much melodically or structurally for abg to develop. But that's never an excuse for a lack of rearrangement. What counts as new material - not the pads - are the synths, which replace the piano and play against the drawn-out lead, and of course the DnB, which introduces movement. I think the ideas expressed in this short span are sufficient to qualify as rearrangement of THIS source material, if not any other, and is enjoyable enough anyway. YES

Instrumentation isn't so bad, but like the others said there is little originality here, and what tries to pass off as original ends up as amateurish. Not enough. NO

The strings are sampled from the original while the vocals and synths have nothing to do with it. The only way this resembles MGS without outright ripping it is the bass and some harmony. Arrangement and production are both very poor. NO

Unknown's been getting a lot of his stuff reviewed lately... I appreciate the effort if not the result of turning the funky Fortuna into orchestral, but I cannot abide by a substantial original being completely ignored by its so-called remix in the process. NO

This is here because of some concern that there may be similar issues to the rejected Herzog Zwei mix, which I don't agree with. This Asterix mix bears clear resemblance to a substantial original and can count as a rearrangement, while the Herzog Zwei music was indistinguishable and its mix could have been a "rearrangement" of anything. Although some of the enunciation is a little iffy, the flow is tight, the production is good, and the arrangement is there. YES

I really like the synth lead and harmony's discotheque sound - cool stuff. Unfortunately, the other samples used are cookie-cutter fruity stuff with little sound manipulation to engage the listener. On the composition side, this piece falls apart with an autopilot kick and a sax and bassline that's all over the place. Not a bad arrangement of a most excellent original, but it has as much form and structure as an amoeba; quite messy. There are some good ideas here that need to be sorted from this jumble. NO

Well, shit. Thanks for picking such an awesome track and arranging it for guitar for a total of 44 seconds. You know how to play, you've got the melody down, now please expand this into a further developed rearrangement with comping that'd put Shredder to shame and resubmit. NO

Tetris dance. There's only two ways this can go. Mixing is decent, though dull - same phaser on lead throughout, synth chorus, good use of stereo field. None of these sounds are interesting, and the drum loops are especially a drag. Arrangement relies too much on the original and lacks structure; improv is too little too late. The fadeout ending is totally misused. Just dull and unprovocative. NO

Not the typical orchestral arrangement. The jumps from instrument to instrument is jarring, but serves as some rather robust form of movement. I like the sound of the left panned percussion against the right panned snares and timpani. I ESPECIALLY like the quick marimba section. A little repetitous, but maintains a great feel throughout. Work on your production next time. AARGH

Who knows what or where the original is in this smorgasbord of sounds. This is more of a slapstick soundfx collage than an arrangement. I like the doots, I like the Front 242 percussion, but aside from the neato factor there's not much going for this mix. Tie the better sounds together, get rid of the superfluous ones (ambulance?), and sequence something cohesive and complete. NO

I agree with the previous no votes. Although it seems that OMF's creators liked this mix enough, I (OMFG) have to say that it fails to retain the energy and creativity of the menu theme and is more of a step backwards in composition and even sound quality. This product is stale and unoriginal in comparison. NO

Alright now, those pitches are unnecessarily high; the delay feedback is just cruel. That much is enough to get a no from me. Add in simplicity of composition and a super long tiresome arrangement and, well, you still get a no. NO

This goes places where no Metroid has gone before, and then it keeps going. More deviance than rearrangement makes for an entirely new song. Very little resemblance to the original theme overall. NO

The patch is a little weak, the arrangement is great. I'd much rather have it this way than the other way around. YES

My opinion is opposite - that the sample quality is fine and the arrangement is decidedly amateurish. There's a bit of improv and some modified progression but the mix mostly follows the same lines of the original in melody and style. The percussion is especially mediocre. The composition is entirely too simplistic. NO

Touchy-feely. Major change in style from the original, ornate and evocative. The song was mixed at a high volume, which is good, but the piano especially sounds close to distortion during its peaks. A LOT of mid-range going on here, plenty of density; the flute and glockenspiel are a fresh breath of treble. Great arrangement, I'd have liked to hear a five or six minute opus, but this will do fine. YES

Incidentally, we would have handled this sub as we were going through the inbox today, but Tilde asked me to fall-through this a few days before and the email had a broken link anyway.

This would probably have been a direct post if djp had listened to the original; it's not revolutionary, but it pretty much gets the job done in regards to rearrangement and mixing. I prefer the original's dissonant style, but this remix is original enough in its own right. YES

Stomp! Very cool. The other instruments don't get as much love, but hey, the perc rhythm is the highlight. The idiosyncrasies like intermittent high-pitched windpipe (?), airy acoustics, and downplayed layers of arrangement work in favor of this mix. Skip at 2:44. Listen to this one on headphones. YES

Too similar to the original; this could really have been taken places with the guitar and synth element (1:50 - 2:20) elaborated and expanded. NO

Patterns, patterns, patterns. Chorals from original never let up and carry the mix all the way through, lotta drumloops that just loop, simplistic repeating solos, and motionless synth bits. Patterns are predictable and boring. NO

This mix has serious issues on many fronts. Instruments are either (frequently) shoved hard left or hard right with mush inbetween. Certain combinations are especially messy, such as guitar+chorals+piano all panned at the same point to the left. Unrestrained application of reverb on everything doesn't help the clutter. Production is weak, and the arrangement doesn't make up for it since the mix is mostly the original with reduced tempo and identical progression, except for little flubs like the rhythmic issues at 2:37. I like the varied instrumentation, but everything else is sub par. NO

I just spent some time going through each track from the nsf, 31 total. Each is almost completely different from the other. Intricate and stylistic stuff, not easily rearrangeable. The song mixed here has some cool counterpoint and countermelody going on, and while I'm no indoctrinated theorist, I don't think the 'artistic liberty' taken in regard to their strength was appropriate. I hear the tonal issues Daniel and Israfel outline; however, these are not the only culprits of this rejection. I'm having problems with the repetitious spinet, dissimilarity to the original, and ugly strings. The spinet plays mostly the same progression throughout the mix and sounds decidedly insoluble. Past the A section, most of what follows other than brief reprises has little to do with the original and comes across as solely meant to impress. On the audio engineering side, the orchestra suffers from lack of believability, especially in the quick release and short sustain of the strings as Ari says, creating a jumbled jigsaw performance. And then you go and crash winamp. I commend you for attempting this style as there aren't exactly many Baroque arrangements on this site, but I'm afraid that alone can't tip the scale in favor of this imperfect mix. Pay most attention to the others' analysis of compositional and harmonic matters, and exercise more caution in production. NO

Good coffee house arrangement. Too bad MK64 sucks. I always cringe when I hear emulated brass exposed to a great degree, and is the brass ever exposed here! I can't quibble too much over it, it may be tonally a bit nasal but it's not god awful. Cool vibe, many mature harmonies present. I didn't find the mastering noteworthy; there is some audible clipping during a few trumpet/tuba runs and the instruments tend to bleed into each other. Smart transitions and lead-ins. Sneaking in jingle bell before the end was clever. Good arrangement, not so great soundset. YES

I'd just like to say this submission's title rocks. That is all.