Israfel

**Spoilers...of course** Pay attention to the endings of SH1. Notice the marks that Alessa is spreading across town, and then how it's referenced in SH3. The question we should be asking is, does Samael even exist? Because the "mark of Samael" seems to *really* be the seal of Metatron.

Oh yeah, now this is really nice. Subtle and beautiful mix with a melancholy, almost fragile sound. One of the better mixes I've heard in awhile- definitely a thumbs up from me. YES

I'm in agreement with GL and Prot- this is basically an original composition that uses a sample from a videogame. I was against Jared's mix, and I'm against this one. If you're going to use performance samples like this they need to be more tightly integrated- meaning your added material should develop the melodic and rhythmic ideas of the original clip, and not simply serve as harmonic background. NO

Pleasant little piece that plays it safe and doesn't do anything particularly good or bad. A bit underwhelming, but worth a listen, YES

Remember when you would ask your HS English teacher how long an essay had to be and he would respond "however long it takes to answer the question sufficiently?" Music is the same way- there's no "too long" or "too short" - all that matters is whether or not a musical argument was presented and adequetly developed. In this case, that didn't happen. Good call. NO

I've been listening to this for a few days now and I really like it. Groovy bass line and nice effects- fun stuff. As far as the "off notes" comment: I know it seems that I've made a hobby out of disagreeing with Protricity on "wrong note" issues, but I do try to give him the benefit of the doubt. Even though I rarely hear what he's refering to, I still assume that he's just giving his honest assessment. As such, I thought I'd try to dissect the section in question and see what's going on. First some basics- The piece is tonally centered around E and the mode we're dealing with is Locrian or some sort of blues scale. The point being that this scale contains a flat 5 scale degree. Harmonically the mix mainly alternates between a Em7b5 and A(7). Alright- so what's going on at 1:22: Well, starting at 1:20 you have an E in the bass, D in the strings, while the melody comes down a scale from D to G (D C Bb A G). Nothing strange here, everything fits in the Em7b5 harmony (the C and A are pretty clear examples of passing tones) Then at 1:22 the harmony switches to A7- the bass goes to A, the strings to C# and the melody plays E G A E Every single note here falls within the A7 harmony. 2:49 is simply a repeat of the same thing. So, while I respect Protricity's opinion, aesthically I don't hear any wrong notes, and theoretically I don't see any. As such, YES

I have to say that I'm with Dan a bit on this one. The opening section and its repeats sound quite nice. The "C" section works fairly well compositionally, but I feel it suffers from idiomatic writing in the solo instrument that doesn't translate well to samples. The real trouble for me though is the "B" sections. The counterpoint here seems to lose its sense of forward momentum and just doesn't work in my opinion. Any sort of logical harmonic progression is either heavily obscured or entirely absent. It also sounds completely alien to the style being attempted. And unless I'm hearing this wrong, you end the piece on a 2nd inversion chord - particularly in this style, 2nd inversions never function as tonic chords but rather as dominant suspensions, and as a result the ending feels incomplete. But this is tricky- on the one hand I feel that the mix is flawed and pales in comparison to your earlier mixes. On the other hand, this mix is attempting something much more ambitious than the average work we see here and should perhaps be given some leeway because of that. I've heard this mix numerous times since it was first released on vgmix, and I've been unable to come to a strong opinion on it. As such, I'll keep it alive with a yes and see what the others think. YES

I'm a huge fan of the Silent Hill games- replayed them several time, read all the plot guides, had loooong debates about the plot etc etc. But let me say this- SH 1 and 3 have really interesting, complex plots- but SH2 is where it's at. Silent Hill 2 has the most mature and complex plot in a videogame. Period. I'm not one of those videogames=art kinda guys, but SH2 has a plot which transcends videogames and is one of the very few examples of art in the game community. And I don't mean the plot is "good" in the sense that it's interesting or fun to watch- but rather that it's truly art; it offers sincere and relevant statements about life that are presented in a masterful and subtle way.

Really cool sound here. I have to say that I didn't like the heavy reverb on the bass drum, but otherwise I found alot to enjoy here. Dark, oppressive, and dripping with atmosphere- good work. YES

I've heard this one several times now and my opinion of it keeps flipping back and forth. Initially I wasn't too impressed, but after awhile the groove gets to be infectious and I agree with Digital Coma that there are quite a few subtle deviations from the original which combine to create a rather mature sounding electro mix. The ending is the weak link, but overall this one really started to grow on me. YES

The real standout section for me was at around 3:48 when the synth guitar comes in- just a very effective and beautiful sound. And the rest of the mix sounds pretty solid- most of the aspects that I didn't agree with completely (like the woodwind trills in the beginning) seem more like stylistic rather than technical issues. So yeah, this is an oft remixed piece, but I can't deny that this sounds pretty well done. It doesn't diverge wildly from the main theme, but there's enough variation to keep the mix sounding fresh. YES

This one's an obvious yes...I love it when decisions are this easy. YES

Very nice. Lots of ideas here, and for the most part they're well pulled off. Composition is much more sophisticated than the average mix- and that's a big plus. Sound effects do come off as a bit cheesy I suppose- they remind me of the sort of thing you might hear during a symphonic "epic" piece by a power metal band. But hey, they don't kill the mix or anything. Cool stuff. YES

Conservative but welldone nonetheless. Enhances the original piece while bringing in just a few well integrated new ideas. Really love the organ and powertools section, and the thing just flows very nicely and has a good solid sound. Good job. YES

I do agree that the mix here seems too muddied. You have an instrument in the upper register that seems to just repeat two notes throughout most of the piece- aside from cluttering up the sound those suspended notes also create quite a few dissonances. And it's a shame, because aside from the cluttered sound I rather like this- but it could be so much better with just a little tweaking. NO

Gah- this is tricky. Parts of this mix I really love and others seem a bit iffy. First of all, I really dig the overall concept and the ending with the dissonant piano is fantastic. I found the crash cymbal at 2:22 to be a bit distracting though- it might be better to show some restraint with such a dominant sound. And during the first 2 minutes the drumset is too far up in the mix for my tastes- but that may be more of a personal preference. This could probably be a bit more polished, but overall I really enjoyed it. YES

Production may be iffy (although it never really bothered me), but the quality of the composition and execution of those ideas is well above the norm around here. Solid yes from me. YES

More than anything this just strikes me as undeveloped. Very few ideas are presented here and the ones you do have are never expanded. But with some more development this could be pretty good I think. NO

I'm pretty borderline, but in the end I agree with GL that this is just too disjointed for it's own good. Plus, it really doesn't bring anything particularly new to the mix that hasn't been done before- actually, during the first minute or so I kept thinking that I might have heard this mix already since it sounded so darn similar to many existing W&W mixes. I rather enjoyed the little change up a minute or so into the piece, but otherwise it's a bit too straightforward and a bit too reliant on the drum loops. NO

Yep, like the others said this was pretty cool until that guitar came in- it's just so piercing and harsh. Also, it sounds like that at the section when the guitar comes in the string chords are too bunched together in the lower register- the harmonies sound pretty muddy there. But the real killer is the guitar. NO

Somewhat of a genre bender here- almost like a trance structure as seen through an ambient/new age lens. The end result is lush and a bit subdued...which is a great combo for an effective chill track. Nice samples and synth textures- a little repetitive perhaps, but it's a great piece to just sit back and let your mind wander to. YES

I agree with Prot; the sample quality is perfectly fine. Really good stuff here- nice amount of variation in the arrangement and the samples sound clear and are well used. I'll take substantive arrangements like this over some giga-studio wankery anyday. YES

Pretty nice- lots of energy here and that's what I mainly like to hear in rock arrangements. A bit repetitive and the ending isn't anything special, but still, fairly well done and I imagine that alot of people should really dig this. YES

I'm in agreement with the majority here. The arrangement is actually rather nice- and at times it's a tad more daring than the typical piano arrangement that this community receives. The problem is in the performance. It is possible to sequence emotional piano music, but it takes alot of work and time spent on humanization- and unfortunately that sort of time wasn't spent on this mix. As others have said, there is very little effort put into dynamics or other performance aspects and it really brings the whole work down. With either a live performance or better sequencing, this could be really good though. NO

Dhsu here again, this time submitting a little collaboration with Blak_Omen. This happens to be a piano solo arrangement of "Sad Song" from Super Mario RPG, a track most commonly associated with Mallow. Blak_Omen produced the arrangement and sheet music, and I performed it. Since this is a resubmit, you probably know by now that Blak_Omen's initial submission was rejected several months ago; however, the judges' comments seemed to imply that all it needed was a human touch (original decision here: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14610). I listened to it myself and immediately realized there was something special about Blak's arrangement. I saw such enormous potential...I became enamored, perhaps obsessed, with it and offered to provide the previously-mentioned "touch" for him. In fact, I decided to add a few touches of my own while I was at it, so you might notice a slight difference from Blak's original submission (original track here: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/blakomenmusic.htm , click on hifi stream, near the bottom of the page). Various circumstances prevented me from working on it for a while, but this month I got a burst of inspiration and finished recording the MIDI (MC provided the MP3 rendering). So altogether, it's been almost a year in the (re-)making...I hope it was worth it. Although I may never rival the likes of MC or Spekkosaurus, I can at least give it my best shot. Enjoy! Dhsu (khabarakh1@juno.com) http://personal.utulsa.edu/~david-hsu/music.htm Blak_Omen (darketernal_13@hotmail.com) http://www.sectionz.com/artist.asp?SZID=6361 -------------------------------------- Sounds like the problems with the first version have been fixed. This is a pretty darn solid mix. YES