big giant circles

I'm kind of surprised remixes of such a short length aren't automatically slapped down with the "NO OVERRIDE" stick. I'm very disappointed in terms of the shortness. That being said, this is quite pretty. I like the eerie vibe until :29. A little muddy in terms of the mixing--a little too heavy on the mid-low end, I think. Man, there's really not much to say other than you need to find a way to stretch this one out a bit. I just can't get over how short this is. I realize that there are some rediculously short remixes on here, pretty much all really old mixes from before the panel was created, but those days are long gone. Take my fellow J's advice on this one and then bring this one back, bro. NO

See my original vote, and just know that really, all my previous gripes/concerns have been addressed. On that note, let me just say, that this is awesome work, my friend! I can't even begin to tell you how fun it is to listen to your much improved track. I liked the first version fairly well, but this is just plain fun. Creative variation in your sequencing scored you points, as well as a stronger arrangement. I love the tempo shifts. Fantastic gating/chopping as well. Good luck with the rest of the vote, Sebastian! YEP

::bump:: currently at $149. regularly $179. The more people that sign up, the lower the price. Let's go, people!

As much as I love and listen to the Halo 2 OST, this is an interesting take on the original "Peril". Not a bad performance by any of your parts, but I'm just gonna go ahead and get the NO out first and then explain why. In no particular order, the main strikes are as follows. First of all, the title--not only is it not particularly creative, it more implies a cover rather than a re-arrangement aka "ReMix" of the track, which is mostly what this is (a trans-genre cover, that is). Performance was overall good, but there were some sloppy moments from various instruments at various times which left the general effect with a kind of underwhelming aftertaste. Sax at :09 came in rather weak. Trumpet immediately after had some sour notes and chokes on the stacatto (sp?) notes. A few rhythmic misses there around :50 or so, where I thought the performance could have been just a bit tighter. Production was actually fairly decent as I see it, considering the live performance and types of instruments--I know they're not exactly the easiest to record "cleanly", so props to you for pulling that off as well as you did. What the heck was the deal with the ending? Even granted the style, couldn't you guys have thought up something a little less anticlimatic? Much much too abrupt. Also, the general lack of low end leaves it just a little thin. Dunno what to tell you to remedy that... Hire a tuba player? Or just bug zircon to program you a phat bassline (j/k) Really though, I enjoyed hearing your take on the theme. Pretty cool stuff, but not quite OCR-ready. Best of luck in future endeavors, Dan.

I'm really digging this. I really love it when a remix totally catches you off guard with it's fresh and innovative style, and this mix does just that. And by fresh and innovative, I mean to that particular OST. I really didn't have a problem hearing the source, even before reading Larry's breakdown. It's there. This isn't typical stuff you'd expect to hear from any LoZ game, but it's really great regardless. This may not be Brian Transeau, but it's funkaliscious and it's got me tapping my feet and what not. This would be great music to use in one of those ytmnd or whatever sites to "djp" to. I eagerly await that site. "Can Zelda djp?" YES (she sure can!) I eagerly await someone to create that site.

Well, the first time I listened to this, I thought there might be some slight issues in terms of pacing, but the lengthy "looming" intro kind of grew on me. Gonna try and sum this up rather directly. I think there's some really great part writing and arrangement going on here. Instrument quality comes right back and counters that, though. There's wonderful attention to dynamics and overall composition, but these horribly fake samples/soundfonts/synths, etc. just simply won't slide by me. Along the lines of this, let me just say a few things. I'll begin by saying that I'm sorry, but I just feel too strongly that there are just too many resources (even free ones) out there for me to simply "YES" a track in spite of such a thing. Period. I don't mean to be a nit-picky pain in the ass, really, I don't. And even as one of the newer members of the panel, in this sort of genre, I would only assume realism is kind of important--we're trying to improve upon the capabilities of the SNES soundchip. I think this piece could be absolutely raw if not for things like the phony brass at places such as 2:27, 2:47 etc, 4:47, and so on. I understand that realism is kind of hard to achieve via sampling, but if you put in the work, you can come a lot closer. Really, I'd love to pass this. It's awesome work, it just gets bogged down by the quality. (By the way, even with the VBR, i think 96kpbs is a little low for an OCR--but that's a minor gripe). NO REWORK/RESUBMIT

samplefusion DOES have some good free downloads if you register your copy of FL, but you can only download the samples that are under 10MB I believe. Recently, they put up the option to buy all 17 CD's for $99, whereas they are somewhere around $25-$35 individually. That's a GREAT offer, and you get a TON more awesome (and better organized) samples than if you just go the free route. Trust me on that. I know from experience. I downloaded EVERY available free sample, and there was a TON of stuff I missed until i splurged.

The volume is too inconsistent on the lead sax. I'm talking from note to note, where adjacent notes would be too loud or soft next to each other. I'm not talking about overall dynamics. Some minor tuning gripes. Mastering on the drums could use some work. A little too much reverb, makes them sound kind of far away, but yet the crashes tend to be overbearing at various places. Arrangement is aight. Nice funk. What's with the fuzz there at the beginning? Was that intentional? Main qualm here is the production. Sax is too dry, initially, especially during the "verse" portions, fronting a guitar and drumset that are both heavily saturated with reverb. Sax performance, though decent, is hindered by volume issues and some muddiness that ensues the reverb. It's a painfully tedious process, but you'd do well to go back and fully automate each individual track down to each second before your final render. NO tweak/resubmit

I aspire to one day be able to sum up a remix in one sentence as effectively as Vig. Here goes: Soothing to the senses, this is well arranged, well interpreted, and well produced. YES Seriously, though. There's not much else to say here.

I agree with Andy about the title. I recommend something like "Yaléd Hét". Not only does it sound exotic and stuff, but it's actually "Teh Delay" backwards. (The accents are to make it seem more authentic). So that way you still get to keep your title without it sounding like so much of a cop out Err, anyway. I caught a bit of this back on the WIP board. I really dug your approach back then, and I'm glad to hear your completed version. I'll just come right out and say I like what I hear, bro. I personally feel you've nailed your targeted style in this piece. The ambience is well established with a nice array of pads and filter sweeps, and the stereo field is utilized extremely well-diversified without tipping the balance. I'd say my only gripe would be the overall EQ as I think it could have used some additional tweaking as it's a little heavy on the high end, which can be a little piercing through phones. Very similar to some of bLinD's work. The arrangement is fairly decent. Really not a whole lot more I feel I could expect from these two sources on top of what you've already got here. Interesting how you kind of kick off the intro with the Stickerbush reference in the pads/strings and Hot-head in the synths. I think it worked. Granted that a song lives up to it's intro, I don't mind the length of it (the intro that is). And I also don't mind the outro on this one either. I think it gives it a kind of fleeting, evanescent feel, which is totally acceptible in this style as far as I'm concerned. I didn't really feel that the percussion felt boring, or about the pattern not fitting in at 2:00 like Andy said, but I think he's right about the compression and mastering, with the EQ tweaked here or there. This is a tough call. I'd like to pass this without question, but at the same time, I wouldn't mind hearing the EQ tweaked, so it's a toss up. Really, could go either way as far as I'm concerned. This is one of those calls where I personally feel it's passable, but it could still be just a smidge better. Sinde I feel it's already passable, I'm going to go with a borderline YES I also wouldn't mind seeing a little more input from my fellow J's.

yep, what he said. I realize the title of this thread is a little misleading. not necessarily. It can be, but hell. I've seen people run a CPU upto %100 with just a 3osc and a couple effects.

For those of you who don't yet have this awesome and already reasonably-priced synth plugin, now's the time to get it. Here's the way the group buy works. Register and head over to the "looptalk" forum under the thread Sytrus Group Buy, and sign up by sending an email to the FL admins with your name, email, and home adress. Basically, the more people sign up to buy it by October 31st, the lower the price. Here's the rundown: The more people sign up the lower the final price will be. This Group Buy ends the 31st of October 2006. Here's how they broke it down on the forums: Number Of Users 0-9 Users - Price = $179 10-29 Users - Price = $159 30-49 Users - Price = $149 50-79 Users - Price = $139 80-99 Users - Price = $129 <---Current Price 100-149 Users - Price =$109 150-199 Users - Price = $99 200-999 Users - Price = $79 Surely there's some people like me (aka, poor) who can certainly take advantage of this. Now get to it

roflmao. This has to be the first remix in history to ever have caused a member of the panel to have multiple... ...uhh... ...votes

You can's seriously expect someone to read a response like this and think it's not emotional. Also, perhaps you should re-read my vote. Or perhaps I should have worded it a little different--because really, my vote is more of a "YES, on the condition that the G-string is fixed" rather than a "No, tweak/rework/resub". Really. I don't think a couple cents is a rediculous thing to ask. You may not have directed this personally toward me, but I'll ask anyway. Do you really think my intent was to flare an opinion of a "gutsy lack of uber-elitist musicality"? Listen. Though I'm not personally as intimate with your style as Larry or anyone else may be, I not only realized, but also appreciated and accepted the style and technique (which I already mentioned at the bottom of my vote). Seriously, bro, I mean this in the best way, with the utmost respect to you and your song. Tune the G string up about 11 cents. A de-tuned instrument is acceptable. An out-of-tune instrument is not. It's no accident that I'm only requesting ONE string to be addressed. If you choose to interpret that as me dissing your style, then that's your agenda. I assure you, I'm not. Take this as you will.

Aight, first of all, I now need a hug. kthx Now then, First of all, I have to give this a NO, because we already have too many stoopid techno remicksez on da site, and I only likes acoostic trax, aight? NO But seriously, though, this is a pretty dang awesome remix. If that's a live guitar, then I'd re-record and pay particular attention to the damn G-string, because it is flat as hell, and it really bothers me. I like the detuning of most other notes, but that G is like when you're playing live, and the one string is so out of tune that it makes the listener cringe through the whole song, whereas they'd otherwise be totally digging it. If it's sampled, then this should be no problem, as you can simple tune it up a couple cents and re-render. Arrangement, mood, and technique bow tribute to the source to the max, but I just can't appreciate or accept that flat-ass G until it's fixed. See previous vote. Easy YES if that's fixed.

Well, I personally dig HZ's style, and do in fact own several movie OST's that he did. You pulled off his style fairly well, all things considering. I'd say you picked two sources that mesh very very nicely together, so you didn't have to get too complex or extreme to bring them together harmoniously. The song is a little repetitive at times, and I think this coupled with the length makes it drag it's feet a little, but it's something I can live with and not lose any sleep over. I really would have liked to hear more attention to the taiko sequencing. The one-two-three-four thing got a little boring, and was in fact a heavy contributing factor to the over-repetition. There was some sink-o-pay-shun in a few places, but even they tended to repeat with minimal variation. Overall, I'd say that the piece still has potential as far as the arrangement goes, but this is just over the OCR bar. Ratio of source(s) to remix is acceptable. Arrangement (minus the previously mentioned gripes) is decent, and production leavs no qualms in my ears. Song could use more variation in certain places, and IMHO still has more potential, but yet in it's current state, I'd say this is borderline go for launch. YES

Gonna get the ball rolling by saying that I'm very impressed with your success in livening up such a short and dull source tune. Let's face it, the Norfair theme is not one that would cross most people's mind as an easily remixable theme. I give you mad props for sculpting it into what you have. My main beef would be the production issues. The attack on the strings starting at :10 is a little late and throws a big red "phony" sign up over them. Melodic winds there at :26 are way too muddy. The whole soundfield gets cluttered, and I think there may be some clipping resulting as a result. I liked the 007 cameo there at 1:22. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, but pretty fun . I'd say that overall, the mid to mid-low just simply dominated this track, which is why it sounded so muddy and cluttered. The only exception was on the flutes in the high range, which got a little too loud several times. And again, the attack on the underlying strings tends to fuddle things up. I'd also strongly encourage you to get a little more funky in your stereo mixing. Don't be afraid to get a little extreme with the panning of certain instruments in certain places. With the exception of the marcato strings which I believe sounded panned slightly to the right, and the drums (which are more than likely already stereo-preset) Everything sounded like it was smack-dab in the middle. Throw in some crossfades. Throw in some cross-panning. I guarantee that alone will cut down on the sonic clutter by a good 40%. Great ideas and great interpretation overall, bro. I look forward to hearing a tweaked Larva x 2 down the road. NO tweak/resubmit

Look, I know I'm *new*, and perhaps I'm a bit off in my expectations/standards, but the soundfont quality really puts a nail in this songs tire. It's a really nice arrangement--got pretty decent instrumentaion for the most part. This just sounds really phony all the way around, and I can pin it all on the instrument quality. Very mechanical and fake--reminds me of way back in the day when I'd sit and play around in Midisoft Sound Explorer: Midisoft Studio (v 2.0!!!!! wtf??? wow, that's old). And I really think we've long since surpassed the day when anything resembling midi-like quality has been acceptable. I'm not going to fill up the page with exactly what's wrong with each particular instrument, but I'll throw out some examples. The french horn at :36 is very rigid and choppy--it's all in the attack. Pretty much any section with the brass is particularly LQ. Violin at 1:41 is rather mechanical and empty. The piccolo from 3:44 onward is a little ear-piercing. Usually, soundfonts (even free ones, like over at Hammersound) have some sort of automatic vibrato. I don't think I heard any in this remix, maybe with the exception of the flute at 1:01, and I think it would have added a more humanized touch--even if the instruments are synthetic. Yeah, fix the glitch at 1:24, obviously. Here's the deal. I don't mean to make it sound like you've put out a crappy mix here, quite the opposite in fact, at least in terms of notation and instrumentation. Despite being fine in terms of arrangement and interpretation, and even production for the most part, I just could not possible bring myself to pass such a robotic mix (and by robotic, I'm again referring to the utter lack of realism.) Again, I'm not saying you need to go spend hundreds of dollars on some Gigasamples etc. but this is just too close to having that MIDI generated sound. Fix that, and this would be an easy yes. As it stands, NO Defintely bring this one back when you've tweaked your instruments (and fixed the glitch, of course.)

This is a fun little diddy, all-in-all. Nice gating at :14, :22, and so on. I'm not a huge fan of the choice of lead synth--kind of gimmickey going for the GB/NES-ish tone. Sure, it sounds fun, but not for as much of the remix as you chose to integrate it. I dug the phasing at :55--cool use of the effect. We seem to have a fairly simplistic approach all across the board for the most part. Fairly conservative arrangement as far as the 3 individual source tunes go. I personally think they all fit together fairly nicely--got no quirks as far as that's concerned. Granted this particular genre doesn't really call for much crazy fantastic drumwork, but I did feel like the percussion was a little dry/thing and/or empty for a majority of the piece. In light of the dance/house shuffle vibe, I think you could/should have brought the kick out just a tad. (It's my goal to use the forward slash as/much/as/possible/in/this/review/kthx). Anyway. As I stated, this is a pretty fun piece to listen to. To summarize what I think should be addressed to get this one up on the front page, I suggest rethinking your primary saw synth--either mixing it up a substantial degree or adding some filtering, then sprucing up the drumwork (and mixing thereof) at least a bit, and getting just a little more free-form in terms of your arrangement. NO rework/refine/resubmit

well, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this one, going over everything my fellow J's have already covered. Here's the bottom line. This is awesome. It's got style, energy, everything key to engage the listener. And take it from me, bro, from one Slayer user to another, this is far too awesome for Slayer. The thing about certain instrument synths/soundfonts (in this case, guitar) is that you have to use them very carefully to mask their phoniness. Usually, moderation is the best way to cover their guise. Unfortunately, in such a genre, there's really no way to trickle good ol' Slayer in there in such a way and have it pass for much more than a crappy generic geetar model. I really truly would like to vote the other way, for sure, but this piece has incredible potential, and I'd hate for this to be forever criticized as the OC remix that could have been awesome if it weren't for #%&$ slayer. You've got some great talent in your sequencing, and you've manifested your creativity in the interpretation of the source songs. I know sometimes it's hard to obtain a better synth plugin, either due to limited funds, resources, whatever, but this song deserves the best. I've googled the hell out of free guitar VST's for myself, with next to no luck, so I wish I had some better advice as to where to look. I'd say a professional retail prog would probably be the way to go--tap into the people and resources here on the site; I'm sure you're bound to find something. Bring this one back for sure when you return, bro. Seriously, awesome stuff. Great work. NO REWORK/RESUBMIT! Feel free to PM me along the way if you find a better plugin, and I'll be happy to lend you some feedback. Good luck.

I'll be frank, like most submissions I've had a gander at since I've been in these shoes, this is not bad. It is not, however, up to the current OCR bar. A couple years ago or more, probably would most definitely be so. However, there are some definite and obvious setbacks that this mix runs into. First off, the sample quality. I realize that simplistic, LQ, chiptune, and any and all otherwise *crummy* or *basic* samples/waves/FX/hits are perfectly acceptable when utilized in a manner that enhances the overall quality and enjoyability and diversity of a track. This remix does not do that. As I said, it's not bad, and there is some good stuff in it, but here are my main reasons that influenced my decision. The instrumentation is very basic, and it limits the overall quality of the piece. I'm not saying you need to throw an orchestra in there, or lace your tune with only the most high-end and bleeding-edge synths avaliable, but a square can only do so much. Next, the drums. The sequencing is pretty decent, with the exception of the over-staggered parts such as the very beginning, which do in fact, sound like misses rather than swing. The quality of the drums got old quickly. The upgraded stomp-box feel ended up detracting from the enjoyability of the programming. Finally, the arrangement really didn't expand upon or add any substantial amount of interpretive value to the source IMO. Sure, there's some, but as far as I can tell, this does not deviate too much from the original. The mix itself I found seemed to be lacking in terms of objectivity. There's really no hook here. It's a fun little upgrade of the Heatman theme, but it's too LQ and simplistic to make the OCR cut at this point. Great programming as far as the blips, blurps, and arps go, and even the drum sequencing for the most part. The simplistic and cheap nature of the samples and beats cripple this piece from reaching the OCR bar. I'd also like to hear a resub down the road. By all means, you should be happy with this song as your own fan tribute to the source, but it's just not gonna fit in on the OCR display case in it's current form. Best of luck in your future projects, bro. NO

what he said.Lots of cool ideas going on in this one. Very cool stuff. I love the mysterious and sad overtones that such a piano part can create. Very reminiscent of The Wingless's SH2 mix as far as the piano and mood goes. The drums sound a little LQ to me for a couple reasons. First of all, I'd tweak the EQ, because they seem to kind of have that muffled, noisy-neighbor-with-a-drumset-in-the-apartment-next-door sound going on for most of the song. Also, I think the bitrate may have eaten up a substantial portion of the audio's quality. At times, I agree the SFX are a little on the cheesy side, but it's not a dealbreaker, as zircon would say. All in all, I think the drum quality hurts this piece more than anything. Though there's not a lot of variance in the drum pattern, I don't think it fatally flaws the piece. The EQ definitely does, though for the time being. What I AM a little afraid of, is if you tone down the drums, try to make sure the piece doesn't fall a little on the empty-sounding side. There's a couple portions where really, it's just the piano and drums going, and without the aid of the SFX, that's all there would be. That's not a huge deal, but I enjoyed the countermelodies that the strings contributed, and wouldn't mind hearing more development in that area. I'd like to hear you come back with this one after the addressed issues have been mended. NO tweak/resubmit

I didn't really dig the strings in the intro--I don't think they blended particularly well with the rest of the instruments. They were a little too piercing IMO, and they were just too stand-offish to fit well. There's a lot of clutter in the bottom-end here. Not much clarity in the mixing/mastering process. The synth at 1:40 is hella sharp. Almost sounds completely off-key at times. The interpretation is pretty good in this piece. Nothing drastically innovative, but well enough executed to hit the desired style effectively enough. I have minor reserves about the instrumentation--the strings primarily. They might not sound so off if you added another shelf, just like you did from 3:43 onward. My primary beef is with the mixing. That muddy, cluttered, bass-tripping-over-kick-tripping-over-everything else is making it very difficult for me to enjoy this mix as well as I might otherwise. With a decent arrangement, I think you coherently grasp the concept of OCR quality along those terms. You just need to fix the sounds I've mentioned. Bring this one back after some necessary tweaking, and we'll give it another go. Cool? NO wow, that may be just a little too optimistic, wouldn't you say?

::bgc overthrows zircon--assumes control of vgdj:: Henceforth, it shall now be called, shttyjdgfgtn00bzDJ! muahahahahahahaha ::scurries back to lair for sinister plotting:: j/k great show, by the way.

just ordered 7 shirts and a hoodie. that way, i can wear one every day of the week. actually, i just ordered 2. one for me, and one for my brother in law.... the hoodie part was all true.