*NO* Trolls 'The Evil Trolls from the Dark Forest'

[djpretzel]

Hey guys!

We thought we should try to submit our Trolls remix.

Well we are of course X-formZ and the names of us in X-formZ are Floaf and Dimmignatt

But yeah our remixername for this song is X-formZ

link to our website www.X-formZ.com

link to the song we want to submit is.

Hope that is all the info you need.

Best wishes from X-formZ

[Liontamer]

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/Gilmore_Adam/Trolls.sid - Subtune 1

Oooh, X-formZ! After seeing them around R:K:O and then VGMix, I'm glad to see Dimmignatt & Floaf finally have something on the panel. I think they still have a ways to go with their sequenced material to make it sound great. Hearing the intro I was scared that this was gonna be reliant on the original as the background, which is exactly what's going on unfortunately.

From :52-1:13, you could argue that the SID was in the background and wasn't the foundation of the track as some original material was used. At 1:23 the guitar work finally offered up it own cover of the original on top of the SID. There's no sharpness in the track. I suppose that's a lack of higher frequencies to give the track some clarity. The drums really could use more power and variation as well, and the guitar levels are too quiet.

The source melody (starting at 1:12 of the SID) finally kicks in at 1:54. The mixing is sloppy for this section. A lot of the supporting sounds under the guitar just mud together until 2:33. Same with 2:45 until the end.

This is a decent cover-style mix on top of the SID, but I'm not gonna accept any mix where the sampled original itself is the focal point of the track. Same with your Giana Sister's mix. As far as this site goes, your own additions should be the focal point of the track when all is said and done. The best example of this I can point out that you guys would be familiar with is Juha "sumppi" Kaunisto's Zoids mix "Zoids Revisited" where he uses the SID to anchor parts of the track, but his own instrumentation is MUCH louder and more central to the mix. The SID is used throughout a fair portion of his track, but isn't the thing tying it all together. Guys like Shawn Phase hate to hear that kind of rule around here, as there are good tracks that use the original itself as the base of the mix, but I feel it's an important rule that ensures the artists don't use sampled originals as a crutch and that their own personal additions are the most relevant aspect of the track. That's what we stress here.

Sorry, bros. Hope you'll keep submitting and also take in some of the criticisms about how this was produced, which was just as important a reason as to why this wouldn't pass. Vig or zyko in particular could give more tips on how to make the guitar work stand out more and give the whole piece more power.

You guys have some promising sequenced material as well like Ghost Battle "The Haunted" and the older Turrican 2 "The Great Bath" so improve on that front as well to get those tracks sounding more humanized. Look forward to having you guys improve and submit more material in the future, Ola & Fredrik!

NO

[The Orichalcon]

Wow, this starts off sounding so hot. Unfortunately, as Larry said, the piece does rely on the original as the background, if that was just used at the beginning and in specific parts of the mix, it wouldn't be so bad, but even in the sections where it's not prominent it's still noticeably there.

The guitarwork in this is pretty good, it's not a sharp guitar sound which isn't a bad thing. I'm absoluting loving the rhythm guitar used in this. The drums have a basic sound to them as well, however in this style of track that's not a huge issue, as they're programmed relatively well. The way the mix ended came a little suddenly, holding that guitar chord at the end until it fades out would have worked well.

As far as the arrangement goes, it pretty much is just a rock track being played over the top of the original C64 melody. Perhaps if the mix was more of the guitarwork and less reliance on the rip from the sid file, I would be much more inclined to give this a yes.

As it is, it's a great track that's very enjoyable, but not what we're after for the site.

NO

[GrayLightning]

Really fun sounding, but the arrangement is a bit disjointed in my view. It really does sound like the guitar and the original source just being combined. While they work on some level together, I don't think they really work as cohesively as they should.

Also I think there's an odd very lo-fi overly distant sound coming from everything in the mix.

This needs a lot of work on these two main areas and considering these two are our main categories in judging a mix, I can only go with a NO. Fun listen though. I hope to hear more from you guys.

[Harmony]

You know, I can pretty much let the reliance on the C64 source slide because I think it takes a big enough backseat in many sections. I’d much rather hear something other than repeated exact source in the background though. Even swapping the synths or some creative panning would make that part of your mix a lot more your own.

But since the source is there, I’m looking for it to lock very tightly with whatever additions are made. Reiterating what’s already been said, to a large degree I don’t think that this is happening. The percussion is underpowered behind the powerful rhythm guitars, the leads struggle to adequately cut through and make an impact at 1:54-2:33, and there is the general dullness of the track EQ. I would also suggest some more dramatic panning of elements away from the center, especially some of the leads.

Definitely good stuff here, but the mixing issues as well as the other issues mentioned above are hurting this track right now.

NO