OCR, 8 Bit Weapon & Nokia! Reset Generation ReMix contest!

[Liontamer]

OCR, 8 Bit Weapon & Nokia! The Reset Generation ReMix contest!

It's time for some summer contest action! It's not the usual OC ReMix compos though, we've got swag on the line for this one! Legendary chiptune musicians Seth Sternberger & Michelle Mitchell, aka 8 Bit Weapon (http://www.8bitweapon.com/), have been putting out some awesome music & products lately. Along with several albums (their latest being Electric High (http://www.8bitweapon.com/music.htm)) and the recent "8 Bit Weapon: A Chiptune Odyssey" (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/8bitweapon) loop & sample library, some of 8BW's proudest work was gaining the title of video game composers with their soundtrack to RedLynx (http://www.redlynx.com/) and Nokia (http://www.nokia.com/)'s awesome puzzle/strategy title Reset Generation (http://www.resetgeneration.com/) on the Nokia N-Gage (http://www.n-gage.com/).

In Reset Generation, old school gamers choose from a cast of classically influenced characters like Plumber, Hedgehog, and Babe Gunner to rescue a princess while taking out all other would-be heroes. Besides being able to get the game free at ResetGeneration.com (http://www.resetgeneration.com/) to play anyone using their PC or N-Gage, fans can download the entire soundtrack to Nokia's Reset Generation free from 8BitWeapon.com! (http://www.8bitweapon.com/Music/ResetGen.zip)

Because Seth & Michelle are so supportive of game music & the OCR community, we're teaming up with 8 Bit Weapon AND Nokia to hook up the artist who can do the best job of remixing and interpreting the Reset Generation soundtrack! Besides getting their ReMix posted to OCR as our first N-Gage mix, 8 Bit Weapon has delivered with an amazing phone hookup courtesy of Nokia. The grand prize... a brand new Nokia N81 (http://europe.nokia.com/A4496044), a US$399 value, with 8GB of memory including Reset Generation installed!

Contest Rules

The rules are simple. No MIDI format submissions, no chiptune-sounding submissions without some modern sounds & production techniques, no covers with little interpretation, no traditional remixes heavily sampling original audio, no mashups. If you're new, read up on OC ReMix's standards (http://www.ocremix.org/info/Submission_Standards_and_Instructions) and compare recent ReMixes to their original game tracks to understand what we're all about.

Beyond that though, you can arrange the source material for any genre, any style, any length, any number of source tunes, any number of artists, and any number of entries. In short, make a kickass Reset Generation OC ReMix! Reset Generation's tracks are all in the 8-bit style of classic, old-school game music, so you have a lot of flexibility with your arrangement!

We've already provided the link to download Reset Generation's MP3s, but 8 Bit Weapon has also provided you the 21 MIDIs of the Reset Generation soundtrack (http://www.ocremix.org/etc/8-bit-weapon-reset-generation-midis.zip) (also attached) in case you need references. You have from now until the middle of July to complete as many entries as you want. But once we hit 11:59PM EST on Friday, July 10th, 2009, we're done accepting contest entries! All contest entries need to be emailed to admin@ocremix.org, subject "Nokia & 8 Bit Weapon!" Be sure to mention who was involved & what songs are being ReMixed!

Our illustrious judges will be chiptune assassin 8 Bit Weapon (Seth Sternberger), the lovely ComputeHer (Michelle Mitchell), OCR founder djpretzel (David Lloyd) & OCR head submissions evaluator Liontamer (Larry Oji), who'll be judging every track on a simple 1-5 scale, so make sure your entries are creatively arranged and capably produced for the win!

WHAT CAN I WIN?!? (Winning collaborators will be responsible for divvying up their prizes)

1st place!


The Nokia N81 phone (a US$399 value) with 8GB of memory and Reset Generation installed!
An 8 Bit Weapon t-shirt, to show your chiptune love!
A signed limited edition of 8 Bit Weapon's latest EP, Electric High, in a real 5.25" floppy disk!
Your choice of an OCR t-shirt along with a pair of OCR stickers, so you can fly the colors!
Your choice of 1 more prize out of the OCR prize pool below!



Cakewalk SONAR 7 Producer Edition (NFR)
Sony ACID Pro 6 (NFR)
Sony Sound Forge 9 (NFR)
Novation V-Station Virtual Instrument
SONiVOX Playa Hip-Hop Virtual Instrument
A bundle of loops by M-Audio
Project Gotham Racing (Microsoft, Xbox 360)
Unreal Anthology (Midway, Windows)

2nd place!


An 8 Bit Weapon t-shirt, to show your chiptune love!
A signed limited edition of 8 Bit Weapon's latest EP, Electric High, in a real 5.25" floppy disk!
Your choice of an OCR t-shirt along with a pair of OCR stickers, so you can fly the colors!
A limited physical edition of OC ReMix's Final Fantasy VII album, Voices of the Lifestream!

3rd place!


An 8 Bit Weapon t-shirt, to show your chiptune love!
A signed limited edition of 8 Bit Weapon's latest EP, Electric High, in a real 5.25" floppy disk!
Your choice of an OCR t-shirt along with a pair of OCR stickers, so you can fly the colors!

If you want to win a badass free Nokia N81 phone, the limited edition of 8 Bit Weapon's latest album signed, some fashionable gear and MOAR, you've gotta get crackin' on your ReMix! Let's get it on!

Links

Nokia! (http://www.nokia.com/)
8 Bit Weapon! (http://www.8bitweapon.com/)
ComputeHer! (http://www.computeher.net/)
The Nokia N81! (http://europe.nokia.com/A4496044)
Reset Generation! (http://www.resetgeneration.com/)
Reset Generation MIDIs! (http://www.ocremix.org/etc/8-bit-weapon-reset-generation-midis.zip)
Reset Generation Soundtrack! (http://www.8bitweapon.com/Music/ResetGen.zip)
Reset Generation on Wikipedia! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reset_Generation)
RedLynx, developers of Reset Generation! (http://www.redlynx.com/)
Electric High (http://www.8bitweapon.com/music.htm), 8 Bit Weapon's latest album! (http://www.8bitweapon.com/music.htm)
"Closer (Bitpop Mix)", 8 Bit Weapon's latest music video! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koTRq_jhT58&fmt=18)
"8 Bit Weapon: A Chiptune Odyssey", 8 Bit Weapon's new sample & loop library! (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/8bitweapon)

http://www.ocremix.org/images/spotlight/reset_generation_character_lineup.png (http://www.resetgeneration.com/)

[DrumUltimA]

Oh wow. I am for sure getting involved in this, post haste.

[Matt E. Waldman]

Now THIS is something I would enjoy doing. Time to check out Reset Generation! :D

Edit: By the way, just so I'm reading right, is there a limit to how many mixes we submit?

[Tepid]

Edit: By the way, just so I'm reading right, is there a limit to how many mixes we submit?
I'd say "any number of entries" would suggest that there's no limit. I'm workin on 'Tricky Game.'

[Matt E. Waldman]

I'd say "any number of entries" would suggest that there's no limit. I'm workin on 'Tricky Game.'

Whoops, haha, guessed I missed that bit!

Sweet, can't wait to hear it!

[Tepid]

Well, I'm making good progress on my remix. Jeez, still got about a month left so I guess I'll have to do a vocal edit to have another entry. Man the prizes are fantastic, this is gunna be tough.

Joe Swanson from Family Guy voice* LET'S DO THIS!

[DrumUltimA]

i'm working pretty steadily on mine... i'm really excited about this one :D

[Tepid]

i'm working pretty steadily on mine... i'm really excited about this one :D
psssh steady. So you don't sequence for 8 hours straight and forget to eat? :)

[DrumUltimA]

psssh steady. So you don't sequence for 8 hours straight and forget to eat? :)

well.. okay, maybe not so steady. i sequence from 10pm-3am and forget to sleep lol

[afriquedeluxe]

damn this looks HOT. might enter :p

[pulsedaemon]

just to make sure i'm wrappin' muh brain around this correctly ...



we're supposed to use the soundtrack mp3s as part of our mixes/remixes?
not that i saw anything about this here ... but are there any stems (separate instrument tracks) anywhere?
any indication regarding bpm for the individual tracks?

thx!


edgar

[Liontamer]

just to make sure i'm wrappin' muh brain around this correctly ...



we're supposed to use the soundtrack mp3s as part of our mixes/remixes?
not that i saw anything about this here ... but are there any stems (separate instrument tracks) anywhere?
any indication regarding bpm for the individual tracks?

thx!


edgar

Nope, you're NOT supposed to sample the original tracks, you're supposed to create an arrangement from the ground up. A little bit of sampling is OK, but it can't be a case where if you removed the sampling, there'd be no other connection to the original music. We did link the MIDI pack to use as a reference if you need it.

There's definitely no BPM requirement, so uptempo or downtempo, it's all your choice!

[pulsedaemon]

Nope, you're NOT supposed to sample the original tracks, you're supposed to create an arrangement from the ground up. A little bit of sampling is OK, but it can't be a case where if you removed the sampling, there'd be no other connection to the original music. We did link the MIDI pack to use as a reference if you need it.

sooooo ... it sounds like we're makin' cover tunes of 8-bit Weapons' tracks. sorry for being so dense about it all. i've done a few remix contests and i just wanna make sure i don't goof up on a technicality.

thx!

[Tepid]

A little bit of sampling is OK
I have one additional question regarding my own mix: I've created a full arrangement of Tricky Game, but I wanted to filter the original song into my track. So maybe a no more than 10 seconds of the original, and put through a (FM radio/telephone) filter to fade into my completely remix. They're in the same key, so it would work and you could see the similarities immediately.

[Liontamer]

I have one additional question regarding my own mix: I've created a full arrangement of Tricky Game, but I wanted to filter the original song into my track. So maybe a no more than 10 seconds of the original, and put through a (FM radio/telephone) filter to fade into my completely remix. They're in the same key, so it would work and you could see the similarities immediately.

Yeah, that's fine, Phil! That kind of stuff is hunky dory.

[Matt E. Waldman]

I'm working on my 64 Rocker/Anthem mix, and I just want a view on this. Is it alright to have a melody section that is very different from the source? For example, in the mix, it first plays an arrangement of the source, then goes into a new melody, then back into the source. I wanted that extra section in there to give it that mood I want, but I was just wondering if it'll be okay? Thanks!

[Liontamer]

I'm working on my 64 Rocker/Anthem mix, and I just want a view on this. Is it alright to have a melody section that is very different from the source? For example, in the mix, it first plays an arrangement of the source, then goes into a new melody, then back into the source. I wanted that extra section in there to give it that mood I want, but I was just wondering if it'll be okay? Thanks!

Yeah, as long as the majority of the arrangement uses the source tune and it laid out cohesively, feel free to structure it how you want.

[MightyGarrett]

I'll attempt to make a remix for this. I've never done one before but there's a first time for everything I suppose. This seems like a fun thing to get started with. I'm going to be working on Macro Boogie. I am a pianist so this arrangement will be all on the keys. I hope it turns out good. Maybe if I finish ahead of time I can try remixing another one.

[Analog-X64]

Will all submissions be available for people to listen to? or just the winners?

I'm working on a remix, and I know I'm not going to win. But would be nice if others could hear and comment.

I like getting feedback on my work.

[Meteo Xavier]

Will all submissions be available for people to listen to? or just the winners?

I'm working on a remix, and I know I'm not going to win. But would be nice if others could hear and comment.

I like getting feedback on my work.


This kinda leads up to my question. Are there restrictions on who is eligible or ineligible and is it going to be a level playing field?

My concern here is if Zircon or BGC or ANSO or McVaffe or Mazedude all join in too, the competition will quickly wittle its way down to them and no one else will even come close. I'm definitely not trying to be negative or insulting to any of the names I just mentioned, but they will absolutely obliterate every other entry presented.

And again, I'm not trying to be negative or accuse bias or anything like that, I'm just wondering how this is going to work like that.

[Tepid]

thankfully zircon will be too busy, I asked him and he's getting himself married right now ha. But it is possible one of the aforementioned remixers will win. I'm getting signed to an indie electronic label for my electronic stuff (not that it makes my music any better), and I still plan on entering for fun.

What I'm saying is that it looks like a normal remix competition; remember OCR did a remix competition for first time mixers? This time it's a competition for everyone. It's only fair. I won't speak for Larry though, so he's the authority in regards to your question.

[Analog-X64]

I'm entering for fun, but was wondering will all submissions be available for people to listen and critique?

[DrumUltimA]

Analog, i'm not sure if all will be available to hear afterwards... but don't feel shy about posting in the WIP forum! I know MattInc posted his wip there, perhaps you'll get a few critiques from people.

[Analog-X64]

Ok I posted a W.I.P :)

[Liontamer]

This kinda leads up to my question. Are there restrictions on who is eligible or ineligible and is it going to be a level playing field?

My concern here is if Zircon or BGC or ANSO or McVaffe or Mazedude all join in too, the competition will quickly wittle its way down to them and no one else will even come close. I'm definitely not trying to be negative or insulting to any of the names I just mentioned, but they will absolutely obliterate every other entry presented.

And again, I'm not trying to be negative or accuse bias or anything like that, I'm just wondering how this is going to work like that.

Uh, just because someone's very good, they shouldn't be allowed to compete? :lol: No reason to psyche yourself out.

Anyway, everyone is eligible. The only people ineligible are the contest judges, i.e. Seth, Michelle, djp and myself.

[Rayza]

Well I haven't contributed anything for a while so I throw my hat in the ring. WIP is at:

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=24205

[Liontamer]

Reminding everyone who hasn't sent their tracks in yet, to make sure you get them submitted before tomorrow night, the 10th, and 11:59PM EST! Instructions are up top. Good luck!

EDIT: For Analog-X, yeah, we can try to host all the entries somewhere, that sounds reasonable!

[DrumUltimA]

I am currently sitting on a train going to baltimore with my laptop in front of me, putting the finishing touches on my remix. I'll be submitting soon!

[Tepid]

Subbed! Hope you like it, it was a blast to make. I'm pretty much deaf from mixing it with crappy ear buds though, but it was a labor of love.

I'm not gunna have steady internet, so I'll check in a couple days for the results unless someone wants to email them to me at phswan@gmail.com :)

Thanks.

[Matt E. Waldman]

Because I'm out of town and away from my mega PC until Tuesday, I subbed my two entries on the 5th. Grr... you guys got all that extra time to work on it.

I can't wait to hear everyone's entries! When are you guys posting results?

[Rayza]

Submitted final with a box.net link in the email. If you wanted a direct attachment to the email let me know and I'll re-sub. Box link is usually solid though. Had fun, good luck to all!

[DrumUltimA]

it's 11:05pm and it looks like i'm ready to submit!
EDIT: i totally hesitated and just submitted at like 11:55 lol

[zyko]

locked n ready

UPLOADED

[Liontamer]

Looking good, everyone! I'll organize the entries this weekend so we can all get started on judging them!

I haven't listened to a thing yet, so I don't have any opinions yet, but we've had a great turnout. Someone's gonna win big!

[Rayza]

I predicted that, for a $400 phone prize, most of the heavyweights come out. I'm interested to see the entry list..

[audio fidelity]

it's 11:05pm and it looks like i'm ready to submit!
EDIT: i totally hesitated and just submitted at like 11:55 lol


hahaha - yay!

just in time

[Matt E. Waldman]

Let the suspense begin! :D

[MomUltimA]

I'm on pins and needles, guys! Hurry up and post the results of the Nokia contest!

[Tepid]

aw man, has anything happened with this? Looking forward to hearing the entries.

[Matt E. Waldman]

Yeah, me too! I can't wait!

By the way, a quick question. Depending on how they're judged, will the entries also be posted on the site as a ReMix?

[Rayza]

2 weeks since the deadline.. :(

[DrumUltimA]

3 weeks since the deadline! But I harassed larry about it pretty much the entire time I bunked with him at jillnzircon's wedding so i think that helped

[Rayza]

3 ... weeks.... A contest of patience..

[DrumUltimA]

3 ... weeks.... A contest of patience..

We are the Patient Generation! Featuring soundtrack by La Monte Young! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7tmxHhcH0w)

Coming soon for Nintendo Virtual Boy

Rating Pending

[Matt E. Waldman]

Well, I hope to hear more soon! We all have lives, so I can't complain.

[Tepid]

I hope everyone who entered is checking their email. Good news, everyone!

[Matt E. Waldman]

Yep, I got the message this morning! I'm hoping it's either tonight or tomorrow now! :)

Oh, so your Macbook's working again, Tepid?

[Tepid]

it's still in repairs unfortunately, I'm visiting a friend's house now and using their desktop. I hope to see it in the next couple days so I can finish my album this summer.

[DrumUltimA]

I am SEETHING with anticipation. omgomgomgomgogomg

[djpretzel]

Preparations (http://www.ocremix.org/game/reset-generation-ngage/) have (http://www.ocremix.org/artist/5227/8-bit-weapon) been (http://www.ocremix.org/system/ngage/) made (http://www.ocremix.org/org/1042/nokia).

[DrumUltimA]

OMADGKJALKF OMGOMGOMGOMG I AM FREAKING OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111
omgomgomgomgomgomg

[Matt E. Waldman]

GAGGGHH, you're killing us with suspense! :(

Awesome, though. Glad to hear they'll be posted as OCRemixes! In any case, I consider that a prize in itself!

[DrumUltimA]

I will also say that for the past three or four nights I have had dreams about this contest. lol

[djpretzel]

Larry flaked tonight... he's been busy with work. I need to sleep; results will have to wait until tomorrow. We'll also be posting the winning mix, and *eventually* releasing the entire collection of submissions as an EP of sorts.

[Matt E. Waldman]

No worries! :) Thanks for keeping us posted, haha.

Cool, can't wait!

[Liontamer]

Now these prizes are burning holes in out hands, so it's FINALLY time to announce these winners and dole out some swag!

Running it down, 3rd place receives...


An 8 Bit Weapon t-shirt, to show your chiptune love!
A signed limited edition of 8 Bit Weapon's latest EP, Electric High, in a real 5.25" floppy disk!
Your choice of an OCR t-shirt along with a pair of OCR stickers, so you can fly the colors!


And the lucky winner for 3rd place's swag is mysterious German newcomer ko0x with a lengthy thumping club mix of the Reset Generation theme "Macro Boogie"! We're likely going to pay this this weekend during our music set at San Japan, so nice work giving us something to use!

Next up is 2nd place, which earns the competition's runner-up spot. They walk away from the competition with...


An 8 Bit Weapon t-shirt, to show your chiptune love!
A signed limited edition of 8 Bit Weapon's latest EP, Electric High, in a real 5.25" floppy disk!
Your choice of an OCR t-shirt along with a pair of OCR stickers, so you can fly the colors!
A limited physical edition of OC ReMix's Final Fantasy VII album, Voices of the Lifestream!


2nd place goes to OC ReMixer and British import Tepid (Philip Schwan)! His ReMix of 8 Bit Weapon's "Tricky Game" entitled "TRIX" showed off a lot of creative sound design as well as some old school hip-hop flavor. No word on if his entry was titled after the cereal, but great job nonetheless.

The winner of winners receives the whole shebang courtesy of 8 Bit Weapon, Nokia and OC ReMix...


The Nokia N81 phone (a US$399 value) with 8GB of memory and Reset Generation installed!
An 8 Bit Weapon t-shirt, to show your chiptune love!
A signed limited edition of 8 Bit Weapon's latest EP, Electric High, in a real 5.25" floppy disk!
Your choice of an OCR t-shirt along with a pair of OCR stickers, so you can fly the colors!
Your choice of 1 more prize out of the OCR prize pool below!



Cakewalk SONAR 7 Producer Edition (NFR)
Sony ACID Pro 6 (NFR)
Sony Sound Forge 9 (NFR)
Novation V-Station Virtual Instrument
SONiVOX Playa Hip-Hop Virtual Instrument
A bundle of loops by M-Audio
Project Gotham Racing (Microsoft, Xbox 360)
Unreal Anthology (Midway, Windows)


There can be only one winner, and for a contest partnered with chiptune enthusiasts 8 Bit Weapon, it's only fitting that our 1st place winner is VERY old school. He's been around since OCR's very beginning and he's also a Commodore scene junkie so he's got nothing but respect for the track "SID Vicious".

Hayden Petrie, aka Rayza, holds the proverbial gold with a dynamic club-style piece entitled "Kid Malicious". It's got plenty of traditional Rayza sounds & techniques employed while still being something different from the rest of his OC ReMix, so you're gonna be loving it!

As the winning track, "Kid Malicious" will be the first track from the contest to be posted to OCR, while we'll have several others we'll be adding as well! djp will have Rayza's mix up soon along with some congratulations!

Props to everyone for putting their best into their entries! The scores (which we're keeping private) were CLOSE among the top half of the entries, and we judges (Seth & Michelle of 8 Bit Weapon, djpretzel, and Larry) had a difficult but fun time narrowing down the top finishers! We're planning on doing an organized OCR album release of the top 8 tracks, which we'll be getting into more once we finalize some things, so keep an eye out after this weekend for more news on that front.

Congrats once again to all our big winners, to 8 Bit Weapon & Nokia for partnering with us with some amazing prizes, and to everyone for a great turnout of tracks that we'll be releasing soon!

[DrumUltimA]

congrats guys!!!

[Matt E. Waldman]

Congrats, you guys! I can't wait to hear your entries! :)

(But man, this is also a bit of a surprise.)

[Brandon Strader]

Congratulations to the people who made good songs.

[KyleJCrb]

Awesome! Really happy to see that Phil got second (I had some input on that one :-)), and congrats to Rayza and ko0x as well.

[Tepid]

Awesome! Really happy to see that Phil got second (I had some input on that one :-)), and congrats to Rayza and ko0x as well.

It's true, thanks man. It was good incentive to keep adding little touches (a couple of which you specified) to the song to make it more interesting. I'm pleased with the results too, and enjoyed Rayza's mix. Looking forward to hearing the rest of them too.

[zyko]

rayza is a beast! welcome back dude, that track was killer stuff. congrats to tepid and welcome, ko0x! i love your name :)