Reviews by winc |
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Displaying Reviews 1 - 14 out of 14 |
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Tristesse - arranged by MordiReview by winc, 02/09/2015 When a song keeps playing over and over on my system, and I don't know I have listened to the same thing for 2 hours and that I continually to get goose bumps at the same place each time is the sign of a song that has been put together really REALLY well! You Originally this song was one of the ones I played on SID a lot - but now I am just going to be playing this even more! Great work!! |
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Spellbound (Remiximus) - arranged by deVilhoODReview by winc, 08/10/2005 Wow… I didn't like the original SID and must say you totally blew me away with this remix. The original tune is there, even the original feel, but you just do so much with the instruments and the mix!The introduction is… perfect! A great way to start this piece, and moving it from a typical 4/4 drum beat into the march feel was very well done! The only thing about the intro I would have liked a little more was a slighty long cymbal draw, it feels to… rushed. The addition of the thunder was… well done. Sometimes there is a instrument or two which seem to have just "popped" out of nowhere feeling like it is a "mistake". A perfect example if what sounds like a flute off the left channel, which happens to pop up. 29seconds, . 40seconds, and 1. 39secds - and a few times through out the piece. The only other thing I would have probably added to the introduction to just add something more to the overall impressive feel would have been a little more to the strings - just playing the chords left it slighty empty where it is begging for some high pitch strings to bring you into the piece. A few 7ths and sust2nds would have helped in my opinion. Overall this piece shows a lot of really great work, and bar the few areas where our "technical" differences appear, this is a piece of work that really honors and improves upon the original. |
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Lord of the Rings - arranged by Markus SchneiderReview by winc, 08/10/2005 The piece starts of really wonderfully, however is damaged by clicks in the tracks which shouldn't be there - I'm not sure if it is Strings you are using or just a bad compression of the mix. The problem is these clicks go through the whole piece, and do bring the overall enjoyment of this piece down a lot.I feel that you're watched Lord of the Rings a lot! This certainly has a feel of the movies more so than the original piece. Now not saying that is a bad thing, since the original piece is very boring and you have taken it and made it into a epic intro to what could be a great story. If you were after a theme music style of the type like Conan and Lord of the Rings Movies you have certainly done that in spades, and if there wasn't those nasty clicks and pops in the track it would certainly be in my "movie soundtrack" listening group. The only other thing that I feel decreases my overall score of this is some of the instruments you used needed something more to them to make them more "Believable". Many of the brass have that On/Off feel to it you get with Synth's, and this could have been improved by adding more effects to each of the notes to make them feel different to each other (then just volume and pitch) Having heard your pieces before, I feel in this one you could have done a lot better, and a rushedfeel to the mastering of this piece hurts it. But, the technical knowledge you have in mixing an orchestral piece is beyond reproach and certainly shows in this remix. If there was a real orchestra playing this, it would be near on perfect! |
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Rupert and the ice castle (Latin Wonderland mix) - arranged by ChronbergReview by winc, 08/10/2005 This certainly far outdoes the original piece - this remix has a really mellow feel to it which just is prefect for this piece. The mixture of the instruments and the whole arrangement of the piece is just great.I love the piano playing - well done and very nice addition to the whole piece. If there was anything to say that I didn't like was in fact the ending - it felt too "quick" and screamed for a repeat of the piano to come back for its last show, and then to fade out from there - or ending with the piano included. In the way you ended it… I felt like you had almost cut it off and left me wanting more. Overall however a wonderfully nice remix of what I thought was a very boring original SID - great work! |
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1942 (Orchestral) - arranged by Miguel F EttemaReview by winc, 08/10/2005 COME ONE AND ALL TO WATCH THE MATCHING BAND!This remake of a classic c64 game (if not a classic arcade game!) is just perfect! You are left with the feeling of… why has it taken so long to hear something like this?! You feel that you need to have a band play this, and if it wasn't for the "synth" feel to some of the instruments used, this would be a winner at any matching band competation. The part where the flute takes over by itself was one of my favourite points, and the mixing of the whole track is well done, almost nothing to fault there as you can hear all the tracks well (and boy it sounds great on headphones!) In fact the only thing I can fault is the way some of the tracks sound "synth" and that is a very hard one to prevent especially if you are using synth's. Overall a great classical piece that really does the original honour! I certainly can't wait to hear your next piece! |
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Game Over - arranged by WesterlingReview by winc, 08/10/2005 Okay -… I hated the original track for this sid - I just found it really wasn't put together right, and in essence felt there was always something missing. Also it sounded like so many other tunes of this period where people tried to do something with the C64 that shouldn't be done (pretend it was a guitar).Now you have done what I believe the original artist wanted. This piece has a great guitar feel to it, and certainly you pull off what the original SID doesn't. The mix you do here is really smooth in most of the places, then you do hit a "break in 2. 45" where I feel… well it just seems to have lost that "real" feel to it and has gone very "fake". I certainly feel it weakened the piece over all. I just feel that maybe there was a better way to pull this break off, in a way that kept it mixed together with the original start. But in saying that, your start just really makes up for this songs weak poiints - it is well played, well put together and well mixed. If you ever plan on doing a rearrangement of this piece, improving the end would in my opinion make this one of the better rock remixes of the year. |
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Heartland (Tranciano remix) - arranged by ChronbergReview by winc, 08/10/2005 This is one of those pieces that you just keep going back to listen to over and over (so far 10 counts of playing in a row!) and the reason for that is a "feel good" feeling you get when listening to it - the instruments and voices used in the piece, along with really great piano playing in parts just keeps you wanting to listening to it.It is not really "techno" while has a feel of it - meaning that in this remix there is more than just a techno remix of the original. This has some really fun parts in it that make you smile, and others that just make you want to drift off and follow where the creator wants. A really nice piece which certainly improves on the original in my opinion. There are parts in the song where I feel the bass, and the piano could do with a little boost in volume, because the drums and mixing can drown them out - but over all the tehcnical production of this piece is great! Over all a OUTSTANDING piece! |
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Cauldron (Hexenkche Walpurgisnacht HardTance Mix) - arranged by DJ MitchReview by winc, 08/10/2005 Personally I found the original SID of this piece kinda boring - it was the same tune over and over and really unless you are playing a game that gets repeative very quickly.Now I also am not a great techno fan, but this was just a neat little piece that takes the original song and… does something interesting with it. I know a few people feel that techno is the "cheats way out of doing a remix" I on the other hand take each piece as a extension of the creators interest in the piece. This techno remake of the original in fact improves on a very boring original piece in my opinion. The only argument I could have about this remix is it does run into the same problem that the original does - the original tune by itself just isn't enough to grasp hold of someone's attention long enough - there needed to be… "more" a break even created totally from scarch and added to improve the over all piece because after about 6 minutes of this tune… you start to wish the Witch just killed everyone But overall a good remix of the original - |
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International Karate - arranged by Axes DeniedReview by winc, 08/10/2005 Okay at first I honestly didn't like this piece - it just felt too "alien" to the original C64 master piece, it didn't "feel" right. But then by 40 seconds into the piece where our chorus starts I warmed suddenly, and then something I have waited to hear forever in this piece happened at 46seconds - just that guitar playing harmony in the background… Well that was it, when that happened this piece held a special place for me.The tone of this piece is a lot different to most other remixes I have heard, and while it isn't as good as some in technical excellence (some of the mixing needs some work as some instruments are either too harsh or lost in the mix), it certainly holds itself together as a interesting and very fun run through someone else's take on the original music. The "funk" feel later on was… very daring - in fact I almost didn't think it would be able to be pulled off, but the musician did in fact make it really interesting, and the smooth mix from funk through to the rock again was very well done. This is one musician who certainly knows how to technical move through the genres well as I have seen with others of his work. I still feel this piece however misses out on that Nostalgic feeling because he does take the piece way off from the original one in my opinion. But overall the technical power of the changing genres and feels, and artistic skills present certainly make this piece a worth while and fun listen. |
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Bubble Bobble - arranged by Axes DeniedReview by winc, 08/10/2005 Bubble Booble in my opinion is probably one of the hardest songs to really make into something "serious" it has a tune which is… well… just too "cute" to make into something like rock, or jazz… but I have seen some very good attempts in the past.This song certainly has the making of one of the better ones - though I feel it has some technical issues where certain things just don't "fit" with the way it starts. The singing for example in this song in my opinion hurt the song more then if he had used another instrument or even continued to use the guitars. And the "hey" part in the song felt… like it just took the song back into the "silly" realm again - while before and even after that the guitar piece was outstanding. Overall the piece was well put together for rock from a… well "cute" song. With some of the technical issues dealt with I felt this could have been a great 90% plus piece. Remember of course that these are my opinions Either way - great work and certainly this song is a great listen… |
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The Recovery - arranged by Glyn R BrownReview by winc, 08/10/2005 Lars Huff has been one of my favourite commodore 64 musicians for a long time now, and I feel that not many people know how to really capture what I think Lars does in his original pieces. Then along comes Glyn with a remake of probably one of my most favourite pieces of Lars.Now Glyn takes his own take on the main theme of the original piece, and makes it certainly his own with this remake. Something that really shows in here is that Glyn probably has a big Mike Oldfield collection (or he better have if he hasn't! :P) because there is that "MASSIVE" feel to this piece you get when listening to the likes of Mike Oldfiend. Overall there are few remakes that I really feel honored to have listened to, and that the author took the time to create. This would be now in that top ten of music that I will listen to almost every day! Thank you for sharing your vision of this already lovely piece - you did it justice! |
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Sweet (feat. Elsa & Karin) - arranged by Markus Schneider & MahoneyReview by winc, 25/02/2004 A moreclassicaltake on Sweet, with a nice mix of Moody Blues, and Eurythmics. This piece works, and has a nice feel to it, though I do believe that something of the original classic C64 music of Sweet by Johannes has been lost in this piece (sorry). I believe the main reason for this to be the Eurythmic opera style tune - while it is a nice tune and lyrics in their own right, I think the power of the original melody or Sweet is lost because of the replacement with the Eurythmic melody. However, that is pretty much all I can find wrong with this track, the technical skills shown in the whole piece is outstanding, and if I could create music half as good I would be proud. The classical music style of the piece is stunning, and I would certainly love to hear a classical/non-Eurythmic melody remix of this. I have a feeling that I'm not going with the flowwith this piece - because of others opinions - but hey I like to be different To me it just didn't hold that Nostalgic feel. But overall, a stunning and wonderfully created, and masterful piece in its own right. |
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Sweet (My Sun Shines On) - arranged by LagerfeldtReview by winc, 25/02/2004 I have listened to this song over and over for a good thirty minutes now, and still it has the same effect it did the first time I listened to it - A suddening awesome emotional tug caused by a wonderfully designed and put together piece.The original piece of music I loved, and found it the inspiration for a number of creative works I have done myself. This remix has managed to not only capture the emotional overwhelming feel of the original tune, but has enhanced on it by including the haunting and utterly stunning vocals. To me a song needs feeling, emotions, and a themeand this song has all those. In a style and feel all its own, Lagerfeldt has managed to pull off a professional remix of an originally classic and in my opinion improve on the original. Even though it isn't really in the same style of the original (this is a rexmix after all) the new feeling of this remix is just as powerful, and strong as the original classic C64 piece by Johannes. I have spent a number of my relistens to the piece to try and pick out something I didn't like, or that could have been better, but honestly I don't think I could add to this piece. It might have been nice to hear an attempt to bring in the guitar solo stage (position 2:01) of the original piece, but as it stands now I am not sure if that would have damaged or improved the overall feel of this piece (probably damaged it). There is only one way to sum up this song… WOW… More please!! |
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Forbidden Forest (schizophrenic opera mix) - arranged by traumaReview by winc, 25/02/2004 There are a number of things that stand out about this. The creator of these words really knew me, i mean, the game And every weekend I would play it for hours… Very nicely put together piece with the voices sounding good - though the words at time of the backers were a littlemuffledand had to make out sometimes. The biggest problem - and probably the biggest pitty - was the short cut off ending of this piece. It seems to… Like that It was the end of a verse, but it still felt like there should have been level 2, level 3, level 4… please!!! Lovely piece - certainly brought back a lot of great memories WiNC |
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