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ATTENTION DIRECTORS/PROJECTS: New OC ReMix Project Guide


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OCR Album Requirements for Evaluation & Release

For any prospective album directors or project staff, please read these updated guidelines.

In 2011, we had the largest ever amount of albums posted on OCR. Staff was pushed to its utmost limits getting albums out, and we realized a number of problems with our review and posting process through that experience. We have spent the last few months writing up new project guidelines for running and submission, which details every bit of the process that you would need to know. Furthermore, it details what the director is specifically responsible for arranging or creating in order for an album to be accepted. These include:

* Confirmation of final masters

* Any Artwork

* Video Trailer (Optional)

* Website (Optional)

* MP3 Tagging

* Musician consent agreements

* Evaluation Submission Package

If you're running, or considering running, an album you want to eventually submit to OCR, please read the guidelines thoroughly.

If there's anything missing, any questions, or any problems that need addressing in the doc, please post them here.

Edited by DarkeSword
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Like the Pilotwings one - if a project director opts to use the template used in the Random Encounter site (and a good deal of other prior OCR project sites), then he/she/they would be responsible for making the tweaks to get such a site to fit with the assets they have.

For those reading this, I wouldn't mind making tweaks for them if they cannot figure it out, and Brandon Strader also has offered his assistance to people with such as well.

I have also begun building sites as well, having built a template from scratch for use for two of my own ongoing projects based on the OCR template that OA made - I would not mind tackling a challenge of building something new for other projects as well.

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what the director is specifically responsible for arranging or creating in order for an album to be accepted.
This is confusing. Are you talking about accepted as in: "moved to the official projects boards" or as in:"published by OCR"?

Because the G-doc mentions evaluation yet ask for finished albums (among other things). If you're now skipping the 'official status' eval, this would not only render the official projects section obsolete, but also imply that every aspiring director and his/her team needs to complete an entire project without feedback from the staff as to whether they're heading in the right direction, and risk getting rejected after working on something for months/years.

A clarification on that matter would be very welcome sir. :)

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I have a question about II.1.a. Specifically in regards to Kyle's TMNT project. The title theme for each game is pretty much a straight rip from the theme composed for the show. Does this mean that a remix of this song isn't allowed on the album at all, or will it just not count towards the evaluation?

It would be allowed, but would not be a valid candidate for counting towards the 50+% of OCR postable mixes needed to pass evaluation.

This is confusing. Are you talking about accepted as in: "moved to the official projects boards" or as in:"published by OCR"?

Because the G-doc mentions evaluation yet ask for finished albums (among other things). If you're now skipping the 'official status' eval, this would not only render the official projects section obsolete, but also imply that every aspiring director and his/her team needs to complete an entire project without feedback from the staff as to whether they're heading in the right direction, and risk getting rejected after working on something for months/years.

A clarification on that matter would be very welcome sir. :)

Every project, regardless of whether they are official already or not, has to go through a final evaluation process.

Also, you can always ask for feedback from staff if you're unsure about a song needing adjustments - I've done it quite a lot myself! It's always good to have second opinions if you are second guessing.

Being official earlier provides the privilege of being able to post updates on track statuses in the project thread in the Projects forum, as well as increased visibility. There is also perks like promotion at panels, or elsewhere. Artists gain increased confidence that it will finish in a timely manner with a good bar of quality since it has been vetted by OCR staff. It's all around a good thing.

Edit: I do have some questions of my own though.

Tagging (mp3s/FLACs) - sometimes finding the composer information for tracks can be complicated. Mega Man X games are a perfect example - there's a lot of confusion with some games due to imperfect crediting. What would be the best option when faced with such ambiguity? Is there some leeway on imperfect tagging as long as there has been largely an attempt at following the requirements?

Lightbox viewer (website) - does the Lightbox jQuery plugin have to be used for viewing photos? For example OCR itself uses the Colorbox plugin, and I personally like the look from that more than Lightbox. Cycle is also a popular plugin for doing similar things.

Artist bios (website) - the current OCR template does not contain this, but links to all the artist social media content. When will this requirement be taking into effect?

Edited by Bahamut
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I have a question about II.1.a. Specifically in regards to Kyle's TMNT project. The title theme for each game is pretty much a straight rip from the theme composed for the show. Does this mean that a remix of this song isn't allowed on the album at all, or will it just not count towards the evaluation?
It would be allowed, but would not be a valid candidate for counting towards the 50+% of OCR postable mixes needed to pass evaluation.

This makes it sound like to the contrary:

Source tunes that are licensed music not originally composed for a game are still not allowed.

It's not quite the case with TMNT (it's not licenced music as such, but a tune specific to the TMNT franchise that doesn't originate from a game soundtrack). (The document goes on to allow public domain/folk tunes for album tracks but that's not relevant here.)

--Eino

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So what would one have to do to make it official earlier, just out of curiosity?

I'm wondering this as well. I'm currently sitting on a ton of WIPs for an album, which I'd like to make official, containing contributions from about 10 posted ReMixers. Not really sure what the next step would be in this scenario. Is there a specific person I should PM to get the ball rolling?

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It would be allowed, but would not be a valid candidate for counting towards the 50+% of OCR postable mixes needed to pass evaluation.
This makes it sound like to the contrary:

Originally Posted by II. Evaluation Practices and Outcomes/Standards Bar for Albums

Source tunes that are licensed music not originally composed for a game are still not allowed.

While I'd hate to nix the hard work DusK has already put in, if this becomes an issue, I am willing to remove the song from the album.

Also, I'm not too worried about the 50% cutoff. Should be doable.

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Clarifications:

1) In the past, on ReMix albums, there has been some leniency as to the source material allowed. Super Dodge Ball included a number of public domain folk songs that, while not infringing on any particular copyrights, are not eligible for regular ReMixing since the only folk song allowed to be arranged is Tetris A. The difference here, however, is that TMNT theme is a LICENSED song originally created for a TV show and not for the games. BTMNTBAMLOL, as an example, used a small cameo of the song itself but was not strictly a ReMix OF the title theme in-total. A cameo should be fine, but ReMixing the TMNT TV show theme by itself, and in full length, would not be allowed as a ReMix or on a ReMix album.

This is stated very clearly in the submission guidelines for regular ReMixes, which up until now has been de facto reference for what is allowable under ReMix albums for viable source material.

2) As far as approval goes, there's basically two individual things that apply:

a) Preliminary approval while the project is in-progress.

B) Final approval of an album package for posting

The first is when we receive an album submission letter from a person, stating the overview of the album and giving some samples of the in-progress quality. If that meets the expectations of the reviewing team, the album is given tentative official status, and gets moved to the Projects subforum. This can be lost during the process if the album stagnates or starts to veer offcourse in scope, quality, or material. Being an official project in-progress does not guarantee an immediate passing to post, but its a very good start and it allows OCR staff to much more closely monitor, track, and assist if needed.

The second is after ANY album, in-progress official or not, gets submitted to the site. This document is a guideline for this specifically, as we will not evaluate an album that is missing any part of its final package. Consider this the last line of defense against incomplete albums. Staff has, up until now, pulled a lot of extra tasks on the backend to make an album postable. As the sophistication of albums grows more complex, more tasks are now being delegated onto the director to ensure a complete and quality album, as well as making it easy for staff to have a fast and efficient evaluation and posting process.

More questions will be answered shortly.

Edit: The viability of the TMNT theme specifically is being discussed at the staff meeting this week. So the answer may change in a few days.

Edited by Level 99
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The first is when we receive an album submission letter from a person, stating the overview of the album and giving some samples of the in-progress quality. If that meets the expectations of the reviewing team, the album is given tentative official status, and gets moved to the Projects subforum.
This answers my question about whether the preliminary approval process remained in place. Thanks Stevo. :)
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

^ whoah whoah whoah whoah whooooooooooooooaaaaahhhh! Hold up.

No sound effects from Square Enix? AT ALL? Like, even if it's a tiny blip that is probably only a fraction of a second long? :shock:

*sigh*... I understand, but it's still very disappointing since I use in-game sfx. a lot.... and I really really wanted to use an in game sound effect for a particular remix I'm working on. T_T ah well.

sorry if this was already hammered somewhere else in another guideline or something, but does this solely apply to Project Albums or Future Submissions as well? (the Square Enix sample thing).

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  • 10 months later...
^ whoah whoah whoah whoah whooooooooooooooaaaaahhhh! Hold up.

No sound effects from Square Enix? AT ALL? Like, even if it's a tiny blip that is probably only a fraction of a second long? :shock:

*sigh*... I understand, but it's still very disappointing since I use in-game sfx. a lot.... and I really really wanted to use an in game sound effect for a particular remix I'm working on. T_T ah well.

sorry if this was already hammered somewhere else in another guideline or something, but does this solely apply to Project Albums or Future Submissions as well? (the Square Enix sample thing).

Yep. AT ALL.

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Yep. AT ALL.

My bad. I never got around to deleting that post (Brandon and I already figured out something else for the particular track), but I'm just confirming that we're on the same page, boss. You've talked a lot to me about my sampling preferences in general, and I understand completely how serious this is with Square, so believe me... I ain't even about to fuck around with that line.

>_>

on a side note, and I promise you this will be the last the staff hears from me concerning sampling since we've discussed just about every single corner of this topic: What would the general consensus be for sampling a signature intro (About 2-3 seconds max) from a Michael Jackson song and using it for a remix on a project album?

specifically the first four notes of "BAD." (the orchestra hits/stabs)

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  • 3 years later...

Okay, I feel really dumb asking this, but maybe it'll help other directors who are working on their own albums for OCR. There is this legal consent form remixers have to sign to give permission to have their tracks featured on the remix album once released on OCR, yes? How can we, as directors get access and view our specific project's list of mixers who have already signed the form? EDIT: This is also the best place I figured to ask this question.

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