big giant circles

Well, upon the revote, I guess I'll be the first person to lay down a NO I don't think you meant to be *sneaky* or try to "slip one by us" with the Dave Crowder thing, but Jon's right--it absolutely is poor form to not mention anything about it, OR publicly credit them. On to the mix itself, there's continual and constant usage of the DCB-Collision sine riff. I'm not sure that's something we're about here. It can easily be disputed, but for me, all I'm going to say is that being more than a quick cameo, it gets more into the highly-contestable territory. Other than that, I guess I don't have any qualms with the arrangement of the piece. Your production though leaves a few things to address. Primarily the reverb and final mixdown. I remember in your "Take me Away" DKC mix you had a similar problem. The guitar and drums were completely soaked in reverb. You need to lay off that stuff a little, bro. A little goes a long way. I've said that before, I'm sure. Your drums end up sounding way too muffled and far back--like they're being played in the shower or something. Also, your guitar is a little too far over on the right side, and it throws the track off-balance. Stereo separation and automation needs some work. Sorry, for the tough luck from me, bro. Nothing personal, but what can you do but chalk it up to experience.

i like the vibe, but after taking my own listen, and comparing larry's breakdown, i don't have much else to add other than my agreement of my fellow J's votes. has good energy, punchy beats, and a nice clubmix vibe, so you're off to a great start. This is on the way to becoming a really badass ReMix. RESUBMIT

two words. toyota disco.

EDIT - after listening to this with headphones - I've noticed the stereo is notably weighted towards the right ear which I found to be a bit unpleasant and disorienting. It's especially noticeable during the brass hits, but overall, it's more in the first part of the song. I took a close look at the waveform, and here's how it looks. [pic] notice the peak meter. i realize the screenshot is only representing a split second, but it looked that way quite a bit. there's no beef during the quieter parts, or during the guitar solo at the end, but for now, i'm actually going to change my vote to conditional. weed, i know you don't have the internet at the moment, but if you could possibly tweak the balance a bit, you're good to go by my book.

happy bday!

this isn't a difficult thing to accomplish, and there are a number of ways to do it. i don't know exactly which they used, and i'm sure one of the collaborators will chime in anyway, but here's a couple methods. 1) someone renders a wav of the chiptune portion. obviously, they know the tempo, so they match it up with whatever other program the wav is loaded into and go from there. 2) they were using the same program, and simply transfered the chiptune file over, and loaded it up on the other rig and went from there. if i'm not mistaken, suzembachi did the chiptune, and he did do it in FL studio. also, there are VSTs that will let you make chiptune music, so that's also a possibility. *EDIT* yep. andy beat me to the punch.

Diversity. It more than just a word. It's what makes the world go round. Today, on this episode of "BGC Votes on a Remix", we'll dive into one of the many sections of diversity I like to call, "Asian badass-ity". Today's topic was brought to you by Shawn Wallace, aka Avaris to those of the Video Game ReMixing community. Alright, enough of that. Shaun, man. All I can say is... WHAT THE HELL MAN!!! You need to bring it like this EVERY TIME. This mix is flat-out AWESOME. No offense, but it's like you're not the same Avaris that's been submitting before. Not that your other stuff has been bad, but it usually ends up sounding like it's still not finished. But you've got everything ON POINT in this one. I don't think I can offer one word of "This needs fixing". Your mastering is clean, and the stereo balance--very nice. I'm a HUGE fan of Asian instruments, and you've selected the perfect arsenal to go on your palette. The groove is toe-tapping-inducing, and the general vibe really does sweep my brain off to somewhere in China... As for the arrangement, Larry claims some was liberally thrown together, but for the most part, I felt like you stayed plenty close to the original (but not too close), so I have no qualms whatsoever. This is Direct-Post material. Great work, man. You've earned this one. YES also, there's a Super Dodge Ball project? What the hell. Guess there's a project for anything these days

hmm. very amature stuff. drums are super weak, mixing is overall pretty poor quality. hate to sound like such a jerk, but this one's hardly salvageable as an OCR-hopeful. just say optimistic and keep practicing, Ibiel. i'm not trying to shoot you down, but practice and critical feedback are how we improve our abilities. NO

interesting read. it should however, be noted that the windows sound recorder is by far superior to all other audio progs.

ahh, first contact. i have completely forgotten how serene a score that has. thanks for the reminder

I've got about a minutes worth of junk that I've kicked around for an Icon of Sin remix. Seems like there's a few people looking to do that one. We could always attempt another 8 person collab in effort to rival OWA

another gem. how'd i overlook that one?

Peter Pan - got that one. very awesome. Actually, some more James Newton Howard scores to check out include Disney's Dinosaur (a MUST have), and his M. Night Shyamalan's stuff - Village, Signs, Lady in the Water. For those of you who liked Gladiator's OST, check out Crimson Tide's as well. Jurassic Park, one of my favorites. Disney's Beauty and the Beast has some really pretty orchestral stuff. (I'm not so much hot on the sing-along stuff ) I have the Bourne Supremacy OST, and nearly verbatim, they pretty much reused it for Bourne Ultimatum. But still very good. John Powell is another favorite composer of mine, right up there with J.N.H., John Williams, Zimmer, Elfman, James Horner, etc. Ennio Morricone's "The Mission" OST is beautiful too--pretty powerful movie as well. Worth checking out.

Mmm, by the same token, all the Oil Ocean source really does is run up and down the Arabian scale as well. With mixes like "Back 2 Skala" getting posted for following the same general progression while taking the *melody* a little more liberally, I'm pretty cool with this track doing the same thing. It's a little long, and the drums got a little repetitive for me, but the quality doesn't bug me. Larry, don't you know that lo-fi is the new hi-fi? Geez At any rate, the vox are pretty sexy, and this one's got a lot of energy otherwise, so I'm going to counter your NO's. YES Pwn takes bishop. Check.

A little too sparse for my ballot. Cool ideas, and after hearing this, I think the dark world theme would have really great potential to be a good jazz piece. But the bass really is too loud, and the piano quite the opposite. The walking bass and piano solo at 1:30 was pretty cool. The cymbal was a little weak, IMO. Actually, the drums overall are a definite low point in this track. Perhaps a collaboration with a renowned jazz drummer/sequencer might be a good endeavor. The drum changeup at 3:53 was definitely not a golden maneuver. Cool ideas, and this one's got potential, but first, fix the mixing and maybe add some more elements and or instrumentation to fix the hollow spots (which are constant) and definitely work on the drums. Perhaps a resubmission down the road might not be bad. For now, though, NO

Echoing the sentiments of the other judges, this one's gold. Cleanly mixed, performed with diamond-saw precision, and enough energy to make the Red Bull guy tired, I suppose there's not much one could offer in the way of criticism. Fine work. YES

Arrangement is on point here. Mixing is not. I've got enough beef with the final render, that my YES is conditional. The EQ needs to support the lower registers, and maybe even boost the master volume a bit. I took the liberty to twiddle around with it in FL, and here's the output. Not to impose on the remixer's piece here, but this is really how it ought to sound. www.biggiantcircles.com/OCR-subs/DW-overture.mp3 Otherwise, my vote is a NO. (Not saying we have to use my version--it's an mp3 of an mp3, so I'd prefer we get one from Patrick)

quite so, was about to comment on such. sounds pretty cool so far, bro. very pretty. needs moar barrel roll, though.

Permit me once more thy sweet love on this momentous occasion, you phat phat man. My thoughts shall linger this day on thee and thy tender manmeat. Also, did you know that your music made Haloid a success? (happy birthday, man. welcome to the 26 club.)

QFT. this was driving me crazy. i had to stop watching after the 3rd measure.

kill u kill ur mom

I'm definitely no scholar on the subjects presented in the last few posts, but a couple of things stand out to me. I don't mean to take anything out of context, but it seems like you're over-complicating the bejeebers out of everything, man. Such as: The thing about "remixing is about solving problems" - that's waaay too deep for me. I can only of course speak for myself, but I don't remix in an effort to make the world a better place or anything. I'm just showing my personal appreciation for the music, and giving myself something fun to do at the same time. Also, obviously there's going to be "hype" in EVERYTHING. Look anywhere. Commercials, newspapers, DVD cases, cereal boxes, anything. Not to sound like a cynical jerk (really) but is one then supposed to use negative feedback to promote their product/idea? Sounds like you're stigmatizing zircon, etc. for a peculiar reason--and one that makes no sense at all at that. Also, changing rhythm & instruments. Is this NOT something that should be done in order to reinterpret a piece of music? WAAAAY over-complicating. Seriously, you're more than welcome to be disappointed/dislike/express your malcontentedness in the project, and you have every right to do so. Anyone with sense and maturity understands and accepts that not everyone can be pleased, and that's fine. It's what makes the world go 'round. But I don't understand the need to bring up solutions to things that never needed a solution in the first place. We weren't trying to alter the course of civilization or sweep mankind of into a new sense of nirvanic rapture--we just remixed a well-known soundtrack. Again, none of my remarks have been said with the intent of offense. I'm just explaining that I think you may be way over our heads on this one, bro.

I must say, takes a strong body and a disciplined mind to resist the aural sensuality that is Larry's voice. He is, in fact, the Barry White of the video game music and remix industry. While I am saddened that you have expressed a degree of disdain for his cameo, I fully respect and am immensely impressed by your ability to bat down his seductive vocal vibrations and resist the call of uncontrollably senseless elation (just joking with you, bro. that's cool if it's not your thing. I am glad you liked the Opening remix though, Meiguoren. And I appreciate your kind remarks.) To everyone else, Be sure to drink your Ovaltine! Also, Leah, your album art is super sexy. I hope to see more o' dat.

daaaaaamn. that's exciting to see

ahhh, shit... seriously? that... blows... wow. seriously, that sucks. now we're never going to know how the damn series ends. dammit.