CHz

Sample usage everywhere is pretty bad. There's just no realism at all to anything. String attacks are all the same, the violin lead is really weak, the percussion is really punchless and out of place, woodwind notes are all the same too, etc. Everything is in need of some humanization to get things sounding good. After the intro, which sounded completely original to me, the rest of the mix is pretty much just a straight adaptation, with some simplification in a few places. There really needs to be more interpretation of the source than just converting it to be more orchestral. Changing the melody, adding new accompaniment lines and harmonies, and splicing in more original material like the intro are all ways you can use to increase the arrangement factor. NO

Arrangement is pretty good. The Earth Shark Is Coming! works pretty well with guitars, and hitting up Waterside in the middle for some variety was nice. Production is megaouch, though, like Palp said: clipping, drums, poor balance, etc. The lead guitar feels rather weak, especially at 0:40-1:03. It definitely shouldn't be overpowered by the rhythm guitar, and it feels like it could use more punch also. You've won half the battle with the arrangement, but the sound quality is holding this one way too much back. NO (resubmit)

There's more than a minute of sampling of the original. It's chopped up a bit so you're not just directly dropping the original melody into the mix, but that's still a lot. I really wasn't feeling the arrangement as much as Larry was. For six minutes and the short fragments of melody you work with, there really isn't a whole lot done to it. There's additional writing in a bunch of places (bassline, orchestral, etc.), but a lot of it is repetitive, as is the source usage. Beats are very repetitive. Overall development is okay (the orch section in the middle is a little weird, but not too out of place), but the production does not help in the slightest. 1:06-2:53 is way muddy, especially as it builds. The trance section builds really slowly and repetitively across two minutes, and also gets muddy at the end as the backing picks up in volume. Better instrument balance would definitely help, as well would a bigger difference between where you start, where you go, and where you finish. NO

Uh oh, a favorites thread................. Well, since all the cool kids are doing it. "Neo-Pacificist" from Marathon by tycho is my favorite, in that it's the one I listen to the most (which is how I usually judge favorites). Absolute sexytime. Mix I respect the most? "Static Wonderland" from Tsugunai and fifty trillion other games by ktriton with C-Pac on bass. Oozes pure creativity out of every orifice: arrangement, instrumentation, development, etc. Just an amazing work of art.

I'm actually pretty damn impressed that they went through the effort of showing which albums contain the tracks they chose.

You definitely have the ability to get a solo piano remix onto OCR someday if you can bump up the arrangement factor, because this sounds great in every way except that. It's not that there's not enough personalization in the melody and chords, but the structure and tempo and all that are so similar to that of the source that this really does feel just like a straight up piano adaptation. The little flares in the performance don't do enough to offset that. Still a keeper. NO

Yeah, arrangement is fine. There's more than enough to make up for the structure and melody. Balance is wonky, but never too terrible. I never really lost the lead or anything (although it did get close), and everything else is clear enough. My problem is with the popping in the lead vocals, especially at 1:39 but less pronounced in a bunch of other places. They're really pretty distracting. Get me a re-record of the lead. Adjusting the mixing or getting someone else to is another recommended course of action. NO (resubmit)

To paraphrase and cop zyko, if I of all people can hear it, then it's there. This mix is Maridia. YES conditional on fixing the clipping

Heard this one at the MAG DoD listening party; liked it then, and like it now. Arrangement is awesome. Loving the riffs. The time you spent on the drums definitely shows, because they kick ass along with everything else, especially at the end when the track would've been really repetitive if the drums hadn't kept the mix fresh. The instrumentation is pretty spare, but you get a lot of mileage out of it and the source through a bunch of guitar and synth ideas. And that wah guitar in the back at the end that brings the mix home, man. Rock on. YES

Absolutely loving the first three minutes. Good stuffs with the piano and synth working it. Repetition's there but not a big deal. I thought the sound effects were more out of place than the 3:49 synth switch-up, to be honest. Seems a bit out of place initially, but when the other layers come in, it works for me. Aside from a couple of minor production crits like that piano release at 1:04 and abrupt ending, the main problem I've got is that the levels are pretty low. Doesn't hurt it too much, but it'd be a pretty easy fix to make it louder. YES conditional on volume

Just wanted to say that I hate the name "Daijiru," which isn't even accurate to the original Japanese, "Daziru" (which you shouldn't use either). I hate that, even though we've had a good translation of the tracklist for years, names like "June Mermaid" from the crappy original translation keep coming up. But anyway. Starts off pretty conservative regarding source usage in the first two minutes, but there's all kinds of good additional material backing it up. 2:19-3:29 is solid, and then we get back to the closer stuff with additional writing. The style change is good too. There's easily enough on the arrangement side for this one to go through. The massive pitch bends on the bass were a good idea. Definitely feeling the groove there. Sampling works. Sounds aren't stunning or anything, but the writing makes me not care at all. Nice perc. This'll work.

The arrangement of everything after the intro is fine. Far from the most daring interpretation, but what's here is definitely good. Production could use some work. DS mentioned the organ. I'd have liked the drums to be a little softer, actually, but it's not an issue. I do want to see the overall volume pumped up, though. Sounds great cranked, but I shouldn't have to crank it this high to rock out. I'm fine with the amount of Last Rites used in the track compared to everything else. It's not exactly integral to the mix, either, so I don't think cutting it is a big deal if it does turn out to be too much. YES conditional on a volume boost, but I'd rather see the source issue resolved first before tweaking the volume and then rejecting it on Megadeth grounds. If it's a no-go, I'd love to see the intro cut or retooled.

The arrangement approach is okay in principle, I guess, but the phrase is so short and is never changed ever, so by the third minute or so I'm willing to trepan myself in order to make it stop. Plus the melody synth only changes at the end. There's some attempt at variation with the additional writing, but all the ideas are exhausted way before the end. I want to single out the machine gun drum transition in particular for being overused. Definitely less repetition and more interpretation would be good. See Shnabubula's Guardian Legend mix Red Spiders for a mix with a similar approach that has more instrumentation ideas and melody alterations in a shorter time frame. Nothing to add on production that hasn't been said, but I do want to mention 2:15 (and 3:29) again as being in need of some EQ. NO

You know, I've never checked out the Brain Lord soundtrack before listening to the source for this mix, and that track is pretty good. Definitely going to listen to the rest later, so thanks for that. Right off the bat, I'm liking the percussion more in this version than the DoD one. Nice introduction of the melody on guitar, which sticks pretty close to the original, but has a couple of changes. The multiple guitars were used pretty effectively, especially at the climax. Not a whole lot more in the way of new material in this section. I didn't really like the transition between the themes in the DoD version, and the same is true here, but I think that's probably as good as it'll get. Follows up with some original stuff with some hints of the Illusion of Gaia source before hitting with obvious usage at 2:39. Pretty straightforward use of the melody, but the feel is completely different, and wow at the guitar addition at 2:51. I absolutely love it. Nice stuff in the ending, although the piano is weakest here. Thought the cadence at 3:51 was pretty abrupt; it sounded like that section wanted to go on for a bit longer. Overall, the sound is good. The piano is the weakest element, but the guitars and synths sound fine, and the percussion works. The bulk of the source usage is pretty coverish on the melodies, but there's good additional writing and original material to flesh them out, and the style adaptation of the IoG track in particular was good. There's enough here in the arrangement. Good improvement on the DoD version, which was already good to begin with. YES

Nothing really much to add. Sound quality needs some work, because the guitars aren't very crisp or well balanced. At 0:55, the mix has basically become a blob that even manages to suck in the drums. Having no real contrast from start to finish doesn't really help either. The melody is covered pretty directly with minimal interpretation at the end, and the additional material isn't very exciting. NO

Drumloop is way loud and doesn't really fit the rest of the track at all. Not so hot on the sound quality, especially the flute/woodwind/whatever. It manages to drown itself out when playing multiple notes at the same time, particularly at 1:02-1:12. I'm assuming that staticky percussion sound on every other beat starting at 0:41 is intentional, but it gets really annoying really quickly. 2:20-2:34 is just not good at all. I thought the additions to the melody locked in better than Larry did, but we run out of new material pretty quickly and this is just spinning its wheels by the halfway point (save for the neat delayed drum shot). You've got the atmosphere part down, anyway. NO

The fusion of the two themes was very nice. The Girl's Sadness lent itself well to the more reserved sections, and then contrasting that by just letting go with the Wind Garden was a pretty good arrangement idea. I thought the chimes were a nice touch, to be honest. They fit both the game and the mix title, and especially from 2:28 on they're a good addition to the simple piano. It's not like they're just at the start of every measure or whatever. 1:46-2:28 is a weird section. As my compatriots above have mentioned, it could use some major work on the production side. 2:04-2:10 is especially bad as far as the sound balance goes, and the sound of the strings is kind of off-putting. Concerning the composition, I thought climaxing there with the piano and the Wind Garden melody was a good idea, but since the strings just kind of hover around without building and cover up the piano, it really kills any power that that section could've had. If the strings weren't there, the piano picking up there would've been really good, I think. I'm kind of mixed on the simplicity. The left hand is rather plain, and while there is some effort to change things up in a few places, it's mainly just the same patterns over and over again, as zircon mentioned. There are shifts in the tempo and dynamics to keep the whole thing from staying in one place, but I feel they could be even more pronounced. I'm hesitant to use the word "boring," because I'm definitely feeling the, well, feeling, but with more expression, this could be taken several levels higher. Right now this sounds like something I played in the sixth grade, and I really think it could have some "wow" moments with bigger tempo and/or dynamic shifts, changes in the left hand pattern, or even just more actual chords to contrast with the mostly single note playing. NO

Before I start, I just want to say that you should be really careful when arranging arranged versions of video game tracks, because we're here to arrange game music and not game arrangements, after all. Memory of Tatsumairi is a sound upgrade of Happy Town?... for the first half or so, so as far as melody usage goes there's no problem, but the instrumentation in your mix is exceptionally similar to the instrumentation of the arranged version (drums, bass, guitar, and piano all playing similar parts, and the melodica taking the place of the woodwind). I'm definitely not saying that you can't make a mix with similar instrumentation (see Krispy's Halo mix Insurrection) or at least partially rely on an arranged track (see Noir's FF7 mix Jenova for Classical Piano), but you have to make sure you add enough personalization to compensate, and personalization that can be linked back to the original version, not the arranged version. A very enjoyable listen, in my opinion. Nice jamming during the coverage of Happy Town?..., and some nice variety in the middle, although I thought the transitions were a bit weak, especially the one at 1:26. There were a couple of moments where it didn't sound like everything was locking together, like 2:08-2:21, but no real killers. The arrangement is a bit problematic, as I hinted above. There are two types of source usage here that I picked up: direct/nearly direct coverage of the melody (Happy Town?... at 0:00-0:49 and 2:40-3:56 and In the Room at [noparse]1:48-2:08)[/noparse], and instrumentation nearly identical with the arranged version of Happy Town, Memory of Tatsumairi (0:00-1:26, 2:26-2:46, and 3:14-3:56 in particular). The rest of the track is either completely original material or mostly original material that the source melodies have been more or less dropped on. Since the instrumentation is so similar and the melodies are mostly untouched, most of the interpretation here lies just in the original material and enhanced accompaniment. With more interpretation, I feel this could make it. 1:48-2:08 is probably the best personalized part of the mix, but there's a lot of room for more. Changing the instrumentation instead of relying quite heavily on Memory of Tatsumairi's, altering the melodies, changing the structure of the sources so the mix isn't just direct source -> original -> direct source -> original, and so on are all good ways of bumping up the arrangement factor. Right now, it's just not cutting it. NO (resubmit)

GrayLightning had the idea for the feature, as far as I know. He gave spots to EdgeCrusher, Xelebes, Noir, Suzumebachi, and Xelebes again. Liontamer also gave 60 seconds of fame to Kaleb Grace and The Lady. These were all in 2005. I don't remember any other guest judging, but Larry would be in a better position to say, since he Knows and Remembers All. It's worth pointing out that the guests didn't actually make decisions, but just registered an additional opinion on the mix at hand. You'll notice that Gray chose his guest judges based on their familiarity with the genres or instruments of the mixes.

I just wanted to point out that I'm technically a musician, since I managed to fit in about six years of piano lessons or so a while back (haven't had any since I started college, though). Learned jack about music theory, and a kitten walking on a keyboard could outcompose me, so– I dunno what I'd say my all time favorite sub letter was, but a couple of examples from recently judged mixes stick out: CHIPP Damage's epic story for his epic, epic mix "[thread=13632]The Shining Blue Armor Descends[/thread]," and Written Pages calling out BGC in his intro to his Axelay sub, "[thread=12258]Dancing Colonist[/thread]." Something about quoting "big giant circles" and following it up with an all-caps "OCREMIX" makes me chuckle every time. I'm one of the non-mixing judges. Right now I'm a student with a part-time job as a computer lab admin, fixing crap when it breaks and preventing people from breaking things. After I graduate, my career will pretty much be like Office Space. Make sure your remix has a healthy concentration of boom. Tiss is optional, though highly recommended.

Alright, going to go with this one: Mystic Ark - "Your Fighting Eyes Are Always Beautiful" System: SNES Composer: Akihiko Mori SPC: http://www.quiteajolt.com/ocr/mark-226.spc MIDI: http://www.quiteajolt.com/ocr/MysticArk_Mta_38.mid This game has probably the best battle themes on the SNES (even better than Mystic Quest's!), as well as awesome music in general (because Akihiko Mori was a pimp, R.I.P.). This isn't my favorite track from the game, but you gotta take what you can get; I was surprised VGMusic had MIDIs in the first place. There's lots of material in this and tons of potential for someone who knows that they're doing.

Just posting to say that I will have a request up by this deadline. Trying to decide between a few songs at the moment, so don't do anything like closing up shop and picking any other necessary tracks prematurely.

Very cool track. The synths fit in well with the track; 0:31-0:56 especially is dreamy. Nice little guitar solo in the middle that takes it easy. The rhythmic shift and new synths at 2:34 add some nice punch. Unfortunately, as far as the arrangement goes, Liontamer's right on the money, I'm afraid. There's just way too little of the password entry theme in this mix and way too much original stuff. It's a keeper overall, but just not for here. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/rollthnd.zip - Tracks 5 & 2 http://www.lemon64.com/music/sid/GAMES/M-R/Rolling_Thunder.sid - Track 1 As far as I can tell, the source usage is as follows: 0:00-0:25 - NSF Track 5 / SID Track 1 (0:00-0:07) - orchestral fleshing out of the source 0:25-0:53 - NSF Track 2 / SID Track 1 (0:07-0:17) - very liberal simplification of bassline from source in piano 0:53-1:06 - NSF Track 2 / SID Track 1 (0:07-0:17) - same piano line, strummed guitar following same chord progression 1:08-1:32 - NSF Track 2 / SID Track 1 (0:07-0:17) - same piano line, plucked guitar playing more direct cover of the NES bassline (doubled notes from SID version) 1:32-1:58 - NSF Track 2 / SID Track 1 (0:07-0:17) - same piano and plucked guitar with the same strummed guitar from before 1:58-2:23 - NSF Track 2 / SID Track 1 (0:07-0:17) - bass covering the same bassline from source (more obviously from the SID version) with the same strummed guitar from before, occasional rising piano figure following same chord progression 2:23-2:46 - NSF Track 2 / SID Track 1 (0:07-0:17) - everything from the last section with the plucked guitar making a return I went to this level of detail and repetition to emphasize that, not counting the intro, the entire arrangement substance of this remix is based solely on two arpeggiated chords from the bassline of the source. The mix doesn't touch on the main melody at all, and, aside from the first twenty-five seconds, sounds so far removed from the original by focusing on this wussy little pattern instead of anything distinctive that I'm really hesitant to say it feels anything more than merely inspired by the original. You got a lot of mileage out of the material (albeit with some heavy repetition of parts), but I can't say yes to this one on an arrangement level at all without more work in tying the mix in with the original. NO