zykO

might not be a bad idea lol speaking of which... this hydroxycut i'm pluggin into my cut cycle is regularly maxing me out at 185-190 bpm during my workouts... which is fine when i'm running but is really not fine when i'm doing assorted "supplemental" Insanity exercises am i goings to dieeeee?

lol so after spending hours farming the different mats for the Herding Staff (actually, most of the "farming" was killing Chiltara a thousand times over waiting for the Gibbering Gem to drop), I inexplicably reset all my quests BEFORE farming Izual for the actual plan itself lololololol ... but then, upon starting the whole campaign over again to make a bee line for Izual in a fit of agony and self-loathing, immediately encountered and slaughtered a Rainbow Goblin and visited Whimsydale (Whimsyshire-ish) anyway haha and yeah, killing a bunch of pink ponies and teddy bears turned out to be a total waste of the past two weeks of my life. [ /vent ]

i do. i've had oversized, precocious legs since the day i was born; my life fitness goal has always been to get other things to match lol so getting so much progress on my other lifts makes me really happy (though i'm still unhappy about my tore up shoulders and the weaksauce that is my press). the one exercise i used to absolutely love above all others prior to my litany of shoulder injuries was the pull up which i can't do more than a couple of (any and all of the grip positions) before crumpling into a pile of agony. and i don't know how to use those assisted machines, neither lol i just want to be able to lift my body weight a dozen times daily, is that so much to ask for? eeeek. i just googled this and just recognized about 3/4 of the symptoms immediately. haven't been to a doctor more than maybe twice in the past dozen years but... what do they have you taking?

well, i wrapped up my fourth mesocycle on the 5/3/1 this past week and I'm really happy with how well my body responded; new 1RM's across the board and i haven't gained a pound on the scale (comfortably sitting at 197) Squat: 325 Bench: 210 Deadlift: 300 Military Press: 110 (*i will forever have weak shoulders as both rotator cuffs are torn to shreds; I'm actually shocked that I didn't hurt myself further... so there may be hope for more serious gains down the line) today marks the start of my cut; i'm gonna go for three cycles aiming to be done with it by labor day/burfday weekend. target: 180ish lbs and some modest shreddage. let's go!

i take personal offense to this. we all know i'm any one of about a dozen different people at any given moment and sometimes, even all at once. the panel is sufficiently staffed, mr. strader, thank you. THANK. YOU.

a true jedi can sense other jedi through the living force. and i can sense "him" and he is "well"

i'm just expressing my love is all where else would it go? i wouldn't dare. i'd have to adapt it from scratch as a tribute if anything at all. and by that i mean not a chance

I recently chanced upon a long-lost WIP we worked on and I think it might be the most beautiful thing I've ever stained. I miss ya, bud

nearly 4:20 and Skrypnyk'd the eff out YES s l i d e ok, ok... the arrangement is clean; the source is sparsely utilized but it's there; it's just not a crutch for the tune which carries its own weight on a marriage of glitchy, ethereal, awesome layering. there is sooooooo much going on here, you really have to listen to it more than half a dozen times to catch all of it. this is the good kind of density; delicious. and did i mention it's 4:20 long? in case you didn't see what i said up thurr YES

<3 i think it's pretty obvious what this piece's fate is and it is most unfortunate, indeed. i personally am not at all bothered by the sparseness of it; i think that's exactly why it works, giving the original source a vacuousness that redefines the theme altogether... that this "wind god" in all his cyclonic chaos has a vulnerability underneath, a soft underbelly that can be exploited with FEELS and PIANO. or something to that effect, at any rate. it does well in provoking the compelling notion of villains as sympathetic characters. the arrangement is by far the strongest feature here... although the performance is also ace. very gentle, confident hands you've got there. sadly, it's incredibly short, soft and ends too abruptly to be particularly successful navigating the panel. it's a yes in my book but we know my book is written in an alien language so that probably doesn't mean much NO (borderline/resubmit) p.s. i'll gladly flip my vote to a Y if it gets other Yes votes... and definitely if he resubmits it to the liking of the rest of the J's on the revote. Either way, I am ready to pass this.

here we go again with these zelda medleys! it's a completely unoriginal concept that was being done by touring zelda symphonies for well over a decade!! COME ON (raging anti-medley bias raging out of control) ::breathe:: first things first. beautiful. superb pianist, truly. i love love love this performance. you have such fine touch. lots of folks can play the piano and play it really well. there's just a level of expression here that makes this about as pleasant a listen as any piano work on this site. BUT... this is painfully straightforward. it's well arranged for the piano but it suffers from the fail that all of these sorts of medleys suffer from; none of these brilliant little arrangements do anything because they don't have time to do it unless you were to compose a massive, sweeping hour long journey of these sources... THEN i may offer to have all your babies. otherwise, i've heard all of these themes a thousand times over and this doesn't bring anything new to any of them :\ i like this, don't get me wrong. it's well performed, it sounds clean and i might be listening to it for the rest of the day while i work at the office... but as far as the submission to our site goes? no idea... so, like kris, i toss this one over to larry and let him figure it out lolol ? (damn these station-to-station, it's-a-small-world-ride medleys!!! auugh)

oh you, lemon, you unshockingly, Hylian Lemon delivers a fantastic zelda tune that does so much as an arrangement, it's hard to get hung up on the repetitiveness of it... which is entirely forgivable since a lot of chiptune music tends to appear that way like kris points out. i'm just blown away by how rich this arrangement is; it doesn't just arrange the three identified sources but rather pulls together a comprehensive treatment of the entire series (if nothing else, it makes you feel that way). the truth is, zelda music is very much centralized compositionally; well over half of the franchise's themes are based off of the original zelda overworld theme and hylian lemon shows a clear understanding of that with this remix. a very focused, pleasant and beautifully arranged zelda tune (no i swear, i don't have any zelda bias) YES

nah, the choir patch absolutely kills the mood; it's too offputting in a very amateurish way. it just doesn't work the arrangement is far too straight forward, too. really stuck in the very 1st gear it gets into and it doesn't do much else. it's also painfully short and then fades out most awkwardly. this is a no for me :\ NO

the beat starts off sounding very similar to the source but mostly in vibe. once the beat gets goin, it turns G-funk and ditches the disco which is fine in and of itself since that era of hip hop was a homage to the 70s. i think in terms of vibe, the track works really well. vox are clean and well delivered; i think it's a bit repetitive, lyrically... there just isn't that much lyrical content here and after about the 2nd or 3rd time through, it's pushing it a bit. it's adequately catchy but it would need to be considerably more so for that much repetition to be effective i don't really hear the issue with the bass; it feels consistent with the style of hip hop this harkens to. the beat itself is pretty incredible actually, very smooth and stays fresh even within the constraints of the genre. i'm also totally hip to the transitions and embellishments throughout. very well done. i think the more pressing issue ought to be how much source is here; the chords are mangled but they're there. it's very liberal but i can hear it in there. all in all, this is a YES for me if we can sort out the source usage in this. YES (pending source usage discussion) = ?

WIN. oh sir, you win this arrangement is expressive and beautiful, a thoughtful departure from the original's hard hitting, grimy chip tone. it takes the strengths of the original (kaufman's impeccable part writing) and continues to buff that strength with eloquent strings on a bed of piano. i hear the hiss. i don't care lol i have nothing else to say on it. oh except for YES

i've come to expect nothing less from a strader track arrangement is intelligent, stays fresh and expressive. as an ocremix track, it is pushing the boundaries a bit with his interpretation of the sources, it's actually quite loose at points. it still is clearly an arrangement of the said sources, though, and as such is good enough by me. everything else is great. the guitar playing is emotive and strong; i love your acoustic chops, especially in the final minute as you lead us out the track. it's a great way to end the track this is standard strader fanfare. which means its strong. YES

man, pulling your calf is a BITCH. i pulled my calf fairly bad a little over a year ago playing football and, in typical me fashion, didn't let it rest up and went out to play basketball a week later and really tore that sucker up within minutes; couldn't walk right for a month and was unable to run for well over half a year after that. now whenever i am on leg day or gonna do somethin remotely physical (even sex), i have to wear a compression sleeve on my calf. groin pulls and calf pulls are the bane to my existence (ps ok i was kidding, i don't wear the calf sleeve during sex. but i do feel it try to pop and it's like "HOLD ON GURL, LET'S DO IT LIKE THIS INSTEAD.")

oh my, this is so good first of all, nice guitar! huge fan of 12 stringers (though i've never made the plunge for one, i do fancy my 12 string oud very much) and this one has a very sweet, clear voice. secondly, your chops are on full display here, brotha; the performance is clean, confident and emotive... check, check, check. really nice stuff. can't complain about the production here though there is a bit more compression than is entirely necessary unless your performance was deceptively uneven (which i strongly doubt just from what i can hear... which means it might not hurt too much to bring out the dynamics a smidge more by loosening it up as flex suggested). the arrangement is on point, too: the really impressive bit here is that when combining the three sources, it is never in doubt that delita's theme is the most fitting to take the lead... because then world map feels like a natural fit as the bridge. that balance is usually where multi-source arrangements tend to be uninspiring as even experienced remixers don't optimize how different sources fit together. you did. (by the way, i think i remember your vgmix 2 FFT mix!) i've literally been listening to this most of this morning, now and probably will for some time as i am at work, have a ton of writing to do and this can make me write a novel without noticing that a week has passed. so much for getting some other judging in this day lolol YES

all of them

yeah, this is fairly DOA as far as submissions go but like wes said, there is a lot to like here. let's start with the good. the compositional ideas are fantastic; i'm especially a fan of how you not only arranged it in a minimalist treatment to suit solo piano, you draw attention to certain melodic elements of the original source that make it appear as though the piece was intended as a solo piano piece all along. you've got some great chops, as well. the bad. not sure what you're doing at 0:50; you just stopped. and then went again. i'm a big proponent (and notorious repeat offender lol) of jarring, seemingly-accidental transitions but that literally just sounds like you stopped playing. that is a interchange that can be cleaned up a great deal even if just by adding another beat to the transition so that the abrupt stop at least appears to be intentional. speaking of cleaning up, this is pretty sloppy play despite the obvious skill level. perhaps it's by design, perhaps it's not. sloppiness in solo piano tends to stands out a lot more than most and that is generally frowned upon. the white noise is something i've been guilty of throughout my own career and i've gotta say: YOU JUST CAN'T HAVE THIS MUCH WHITE NOISE IN A SOLO RECORDING. there, see? even zyko learns lol all in all, i like it but the unfortunate thing with solo piano is that the bar is REALLY high and this falls just short of it. clean it up and you're on your way. p.s. i personally LOVE the awkward little section from 2:25-2:40 lol tighten that up (and perhaps quote it earlier in the piece for context and it'll work even nicer as a tie-in). NO (resubmit)

well at least my face is still connected to my head this time around lol i still don't like the repetitiveness of the arrangement but in general, it is a good take on the original source even if it doesn't explore it beyond shredding the shit out of it. sonically, it has swung in the other direction now, away from being shrill and blasty to now being too quiet lol COME ON MAN my only real hang up was how the previous file sounded and this is a much more listenable animal and now that i can hear all the parts, i can appreciate the arrangement much more. my vote is a tentative yes (bring up the volume a bit if possible. if nobody else feels that is necessary, i'm ok with how it sounds now) YES (fix volume)

lol hmm on one hand, this is absolutely good... in a totally unconventional, hard-to-pinpoint sort of way. it's borderline trolling with how entertaining this awkward sounding, lo-fi "Dance"-ish type of tune is. there are segments such as the lead-up and then winding-down transition at 3:22..., and then you take us on this spaced out, hazy, muted slow draw where you basically bored Chimpy to sleep. furthermore, there's the issue of entire sections dragging on but then you do something like the chop-n-go from 4:50 to 5:30 and, again, it's great. then the ending happens and it's not so great :\ in general, the track also sounds distant and muted. the backbone of the piece, its drums and bass, are repetitive and drag; i personally dig its vibe and can listen to it on repeat but finding it entertaining and deeming it up to the bar are two different things. this needs a significant amount of work before it's passable NO

haha wow, you are one sneaky guy this is brilliant; one of the coolest things i've heard in a long, long time. i'm a huge fan of this sort of progressive arrangement and it showcases your superb ear. this is a fresh take on skull man; it takes the original source's strength (it's energetic chord progression and syncopated melody) and uses it to explore novel ways of presenting the same few bars of the original in a constantly changing landscape. it doesn't rely on the inherent rhythmic quality of the original as do many skull man remixes (so easily fashioned into a latin groove) and by the time we are near the end of the track, we completely forget how it started, that it started with a totally straight cover shot. you successfully (And progressively) tear away time signatures and give it new shredded ones, tear away the melody and give it blistering solos. i've listened to it at least half a dozen times as of this writing and i'm convinced the tune ought to sound like it does in its later iterations lol the most impressive part is how you chop up the chord progression in your arrangement and just when it sounds like the tune is about to fly off the tracks and become a horror show of mangled bits of the original that it may become unlistenable, you bring the listener back confidently like a proper guide does. so good. polished, expertly arranged and entertaining as hell. check, check, check YES

those bells though! excellent ethereal stuff here, wes; track only ever does what it needs to, is paced well from transition to transition and uses enough of the source to be a remix of it and not use it as a crutch. for being doused in so much verb, it is still surprisingly tight. i can hear some of the R&B influences there in terms of instrumentation but this is decidedly something else entirely, more new-age than it is R&Bish; there's an element here that reminds me of Vangelis more than anything, a sort of sweeping sense that makes the music feel larger than life. i love how just when you think this track had shown you everything you knew about it, you change it up on the way out for good measure. a source done a hundred times sounding fresh? WUT even the title is a ball knocked out of the park; way to contrast the light of the lantern with the darkness of the sea. fabulous stuff YES

jumps right in with no lube or drinks to soften up the mood. 1,2,3,4 cowbell and then onwards to a very busy place. once it gets goin with the traditional source lead at 0:25s, it balances out much better and then it's fun but you've gotta work on that intro because it really pales in comparison with the rest of what follows and is probably the only compositional weak point. i'm down with your chord breakdowns to space out the main A section of the source by rethinking the B section; this is expertly done. definitely can sense that sonic R feel though i think this is better on its own. the sound bites are great; their use is just right. not too much, the pacing is on point, the context relevant, check, check, check. generally speaking, the track stays fresh, teasing us with modal changes and a rethinking of the source's chord voicings while not only pontificating about mixing through the sound bites but also by giving us some cerebral arrangement skills. very cool stuff. MIXING. i dig. YES