Gario

Not bad at all, you'll be hearing an update in here before the end of the month.

Not bad at all, you'll be hearing an update in here before the end of the month.

I'm happy to announce a couple of staffing changes here at OCR. First up, I wanna welcome @Hemophiliac to our Judges Panel! Hemo's been putting in the work for the last few years as one of our Workshop Evaluators, and has also stepped up in the past few months to handle a lot of the visualizers for the remixes you see on our YouTube channel. He's an active presence in our community and has a lot of helpful advice in the Workshop. We're glad to add him to the panel. Look forward to getting some fresh new NO votes on your tracks!
Speaking of Workshop Evaluators, a few months ago we retired our Ready for Review process in the Workshop because we felt that it was a cumbersome extra layer of evaluation prior to submitting to the Judge's Panel. Our Evaluators did a lot of great work over the years but we're retiring that role. In it's place, we're introducing our new team called Sages! Sages are active artists in our community who'll be in the Workshop giving feedback on remixes, posting tutorials, and coming up with their own ways to revitalize and energize the Workshop. Our three new Sages are @Xaleph, @pixelseph, and @paradiddlesjosh!
We're glad to have some fresh faces on staff, and I'm personally looking forward to seeing what these folks have in store for us.
-- DarkeSword

I didn't vote on this but the production quality is an easy bar for this being accepted, as is the cutoff ending which makes it sound incomplete.
Aside from that it's very conservative, using similar instrumentation and an arrangement that only differs in how often it loops material, so that'd probably also knock this one down, too.
There are tracks that I respectfully raise an eyebrow to the overall decision (every judge has their opinion, it isn't always easy to make a choice!), but with due respect this isn't one of those tracks.

Welcome, hope you find a welcoming space that helps you in your craft here! If you haven't already, be sure to check out the OCR discord, as well, since a lot of members are pretty active there, as well.

Hope you enjoy the space here :)

Happy New Year, everyone!
Just wanted to check-in and let you all know that we've got a new submissions process for remixes. Since the inception of the site, we've been asking you to host your file somewhere and send us an email with a bunch of information about your remix. This has lead to a lot of headaches on both your end and our end, but now we're finally moving forward with a more modern method.
Introducing the new Submissions Tracking page! We've used our forum software to build out a custom form where you can upload your track directly to us. This post will get a status and linked to a decision thread, and it also features a comments section where judges can communicate with you about issues with your remix. Submissions are private, so only you and the judges can see them. In the coming months we'll be retiring the old email method of submitting remixes with an auto-response that'll direct folks towards the new system.
This new form, combined with our recently revamped Currently in the Judging Process dashboard, will help you keep tabs on your submissions.
A big shout out to all of the ReMixers and Judges who helped me test out this new system. I've had ideas for years for turning our submissions and judging workflows into a fully integrated piece of software, and while the limitations of our forum software prevent us from hitting that goal 100%, this is a huge step in the right direction.
I'm looking forward to hearing what you all are going to send us. 😎
— DarkeSword

The way you re-harmonize the witches theme to fit with the Man with the Machine Gun makes this mix pretty incredible. What a great idea. I like the different styles interspersed throughout, as well, with the chiptune elements scattered around. Very well done.

Honestly one of my favorites on the album, I've listened to this one a lot.
 
If anyone needs a track to start with in this album, may I suggest the one with a fantastic vocalist and amazing arrangement to one of the best Nobuo Uematsu's ever made.

Literally my favorite track from the album, with a great arrangement, good production (and intentional glitching), and some really beautiful vocals to tie it all together. I can hear what others are saying about the glitching, but I had no problem hearing their intentional nature, especially considering the source and FF8 story it's tied to. Perhaps we should consider whether we account for that in our judgments (since not everyone will be familiar with the source game), but it makes good sense with that in mind and honestly would detract from the intent of the arrangement if removed.
No complaints from me, would be fantastic to see it on the front page.
YES

Hey, not everything needs to be for the site, this is a cool little arrangement regardless. Loved the changes you made at 1:56, it helped keep the next pass fresh.
Hope others give it a listen

Greetings everyone!
I just posted this one online and it was a super-fun track to put together, It's been a WHILE since I've worked on anything this fast. I don't think I will be submitting this one to the site - to me it follows the original a bit *too* closely, but I still wanted to share with others who might enjoy a listen.
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/P2K6DGMC-ZE

Well it's been about a week or two, so as the new guy in charge, I figure I ought to say something, right?
When djpretzel started the process of handing over the keys to the family car, I have to admit I was pretty overwhelmed. OCR is one of the oldest and most rock-solid sites on the internet; I've often said that we're older than YouTube, older than smartphones, and older than a lot of things on the internet that, by virtue of their ubiquity, feel like institutions. OCR is an institution. There's a lot of weight in those keys.
So what am I going to do with OCR now that I'm in the driver's seat? In the short term: keep driving. Our main goal is going to be continuity; that is to say, keep posting ReMixes on a regular basis. We've got a pretty big backlog of ReMixes that are ready for the spotlight, and our excellent and talented community continues to send us new music all the time, so we're not worried about running out. But there sure is a lot of behind-the-scenes process involved with getting these tracks in your ears, so bear with us while the staff--with djpretzel's help--figures all of this out.
I still believe that there's a case to be made for the curation model that we've developed and adhered to for 20+ years, so we're still going to have a Judges Panel that's going to evaluate submissions, and the bar for quality that the judges look for isn't shifting in any direction.
One of our goals in this changeover is to decentralize a lot of process off of one person. djpretzel did a lot on his own, and as we look at some things behind-the-scenes, maybe he didn't have to. I want OCR to be a place that can be run by a trusted group of people without a single point-of-failure. Case-in-point: literally one week after I take on leadership at OCR, my 8-month-old son brings home COVID from somewhere and gets the whole house sick, and we're having OCR staff meetings and figuring out how to post ReMixes while I'm coughing up a lung. Unbelievable. So I'm also hoping to bring more people onto the OCR staff. I've already pulled in some folks from the community, and we're going to figure out how to provide avenues for more people to help out if they're interested. Keep an eye out.
Beyond that though, I've got a couple of ideas for improvements and features that have been brewing for a while that I'm going to start to pursue, leveraging some existing tech we already have and also exploring some new tech. For those that are unaware, my day job is working as a web and application developer at a major university. It's something I've been doing for 15 years and I have a pretty solid handle on building database-driven web applications. I'm going to bring a little of that experience to OCR, and hopefully we can eventually have some cool toys and tools in place to help move the site forward. Some things to look forward to:
I've already put together a Currently in the Judging Process dashboard for ReMixers and hopefuls to keep an eye on. It's a live view of the judging process without having to wait for a Judge to update a forum thread. We're actively developing and testing a proper Submission form for ReMixers and hopefuls to use when sending us music. We've been asking you to send us an email for far too long. That's going to change. We've put together a "stream team" to evaluate how we can do more with our YouTube channel and even get things going on Twitch in some capacity. There are a lot more things we're talking about internally as well, but I don't want to over-promise anything right now.
If you have ideas for OCR, feel free to share them in our Site Issues & Feedback forum. I'd also love for folks to come by and join our OC ReMix Discord server. I know the forums have been pretty sleepy for a few years now, but the chat server is lively and active. Hope to see you there.

That is exactly what I'm saying, Gario!  Ironically, additional sidechaining will help clear up any unintentional master pumping.  That two-octave lead is the worst offender, to my ears anyway (plus it's loud).
 

thanks for all the stuff with the things

First track back on the j00jtrain! I read the above opinions and came in here expecting to hear something wildly off key and rough, vocally, but that's not what I heard. Yeah, this is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea (hi, vocal haters!), but I think the performance is given with a great amount of intentionality and drive behind it. The B-section of this thing totally rocks -- that bass is doing fun things to my posterior movements and the guitars chug with appropriate amounts of [[insert METAL HORNS here]]. Drums are obviously sequenced/grid-locked but effective and cut through well enough. Loving the hand percussion throughout. The vocal mix doesn't bother me -- this is clearly a "vocal as instrument" sort of application here and I'm not fussed about being able to decipher the lyrics when the *feel* of the song works so well. This is OC ReMix front page material if I ever heard it! I clearly heard source tune material woven throughout the track -- nothing terribly ground-breaking here, but the connection is there. 'Scuse me while I go charge at some enemies with this blasting over the loudspeakers....
 
YES

I'm coming out of the woodwork to give a salute to the insane amount of time and energy you've poured into this site. 
I'm not even sad to see you go. you deserve a break, and it sounds like we'll still hear from you.
wishing you the best. 
and to those who are taking up the torch: i think this site is in good hands.

Zack will be making updates to this one, please hold on any further votes for now!
 

hey larry, thanks for the encouragement. reading that made me happy.
i got nothing to send in. my last musical productivity burst is 4-5 years back, and it was all originals back then.
in case i regain my musical marbles, i sure have a few remixes in mind. tunes i wanted to do well forever. starcraft terran music is a good example. that stuff is hard to do justice.
i'll probably have to do a lot of fun and easy stuff to get to a level where i can do the kind of (OC) remixes i envision, again. back in 2008 it was OLR that made that possible. today...i gotta find my own projects to get me back in shape. maybe this winter. crossing fingers as well.

i know it isn't, especially today. i think this was submitted in 2003ish though, and i loved it back then. still like it. always wanted to make a good starcraft terran remix since.
i just randomly came across it on youtube and thought hey, why not make a stupid thread. i think it has a lot of mojo for being such a simplistic semi - cover, and it would've been well liked. i know that's not what ocr is about, ofc.
maybe someone else can think of something. i used to listen to many other failed submissions back then...
sometimes the passage of times changes things a lot. maybe a judge has some choice tunes that didn't make it but became absolute favorites of theirs.
one thing i always thought is that if a remix is very similar compositionally but has exceptional "mojo" for lack of a better explanation, exceptions should be possible. not that i'm saying this mix is it - just in general.

I didn't vote on this but the production quality is an easy bar for this being accepted, as is the cutoff ending which makes it sound incomplete.
Aside from that it's very conservative, using similar instrumentation and an arrangement that only differs in how often it loops material, so that'd probably also knock this one down, too.
There are tracks that I respectfully raise an eyebrow to the overall decision (every judge has their opinion, it isn't always easy to make a choice!), but with due respect this isn't one of those tracks.

He's talking about the chords build upon those scale degrees in the parallel minor key, not the scale.  Don't think about the key of F major.  He's only talking about the keys of G major and G minor.  So each time he shows a chord symbol at the top of the staff he's indicating what chord it is not the key.
So a chord built upon the third scale degree of G minor is Bb major.  If you build a chord on the seventh scale degree of G minor you get F major.  He's making an assumption about "generic" sound based on his own experiences.
When notes and chords are "borrowed" from relative major and minor keys, it's usually done to change color or add interest.  The composer chose to do these things to achieve a sound more interesting than using just G major.
I hope that helps in your understanding.

Alright, the final due date has passed, there will be no more tracks accepted for this album. I am working on putting together the final package for review for the staff this week. Thanks for the additional support from members like Voodoo Queen, bLiNd, and Bunnylord (aka TimComposer) for producing some final tracks for everyone to enjoy!

Alright, the final due date has passed, there will be no more tracks accepted for this album. I am working on putting together the final package for review for the staff this week. Thanks for the additional support from members like Voodoo Queen, bLiNd, and Bunnylord (aka TimComposer) for producing some final tracks for everyone to enjoy!

Whohoo! Will be glad for this one to see the light of day!

Alright, the final due date has passed, there will be no more tracks accepted for this album. I am working on putting together the final package for review for the staff this week. Thanks for the additional support from members like Voodoo Queen, bLiNd, and Bunnylord (aka TimComposer) for producing some final tracks for everyone to enjoy!