Max Submission Size Raised to 8MiB

[djpretzel]

Effective immediately, the judges panel has voted to raise the maximum submission size to 8MiB, or 8,388,608 bytes.




The max bitrate REMAINS 192Kbps; if you want to visit my house and prove you can pass a blind test differentiating between 192Kbps and 256Kbps, be my guest. If you win, the bitrate will be raised. If you lose, you owe OC ReMix $300 for my time :nicework:
This decision was reached by vote of the judges panel on a thread I posted; our mirrors are handling MP3 bandwidth admirably and, combined with torrents, have proven that this increase should be sustainable, so I posed the question and the judges responded.
If you already have a piece queued up you think would benefit from a higher quality encode, please get in touch with a judge, BUT please note that any such changes may delay the evaluation of your track. I'd recommend against it unless it's a 6-7 minute track where the encode really brutalized things.
As to the logical follow up question of "OMFG WHY NOT 10MB?! OR EVEN... 100MB!!!?", well, to be honest 6MiB has been serving us quite well for a long time. There are logistics involved at OCR that are fairly unique, and specifically when you factor in the (necessarily) manual evaluation of both arrangement and production PLUS the general deterrence towards mega-medleys, etc., we feel it makes a lot of sense.
We are considering going back and soliciting higher quality encodes of mixes ALREADY posted, but have not formalized any plans. Please don't ask to update any existing tracks you may have had posted on the site, as we won't do it - in other words, don't call us, we'll call you.

That's it, pretty much. While I'm sure someone can manage to put a negative spin on this by complaining that it took us too long, that it should be raised higher still, or that Larry smells (only one of which is true), I see it as a "good thing" that represents our steady, stable, persistent improvement of the site over time.

[KyleJCrb]

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/117505/img/space.gifFINALLY.

[Harmony]

Guess I'll be subbing everything at 192 now :)

[Liontamer]

You are the one who smells, djpretzel.

[Rozovian]

With the improved tags and mp3-validated files and now this, I think a massive file replacement should be considered. iirc, Valse Aeris on the site was encoded low to fit the 6 MB limit, and I'm sure there are other examples. With new encoding comes the opportunity to fix things in the mix too, at least for ppl who still have project files and whatever tools and resources they used.

In any case, this'll be great for future 10-minute works. :D

[KyleJCrb]

Yeah, a few songs on the site had strict encoding done to fit the file size limit. The one I can think of off the top of my head is "The Trial In Concert" from Spekkosaurus (which I believe I do have a high-quality version of), but I'm sure there are others.

[OverCoat]

the general deterrence towards mega-medleys

Is there really a general deterrence towards mega-medleys? I never noticed.

[KyleJCrb]

The judges have Medley Bias.

[OverCoat]

well ill be fucked, I guess they do

[Liontamer]

Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together.

That's section 3-2 if you're looking. There's no hate against medleys, but there's a deterrence towards mega-medleys that aren't cohesively structured. "Fire Cross" is a great example of one that flows well. Even "Speedy Guitar", with its abrupt changeups, works very well. But the ones with 30 seconds of one theme, 30 of the next, 30 of the next, etc. for 6-8 minutes with no flow, we're never gonna roll with.

[big giant circles]

I would just like to clarify that I do in fact hate medleys. All medleys from now on will be met with severe contempt and maximum obstruction by me. Also, I hate all electronica and jazz. Any such pieces will be auto-rejected. We will only be accepting rock or metal remixes from now on.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I would just like to clarify that I do in fact hate medleys. All medleys from now on will be met with severe contempt and maximum obstruction by me. Also, I hate all electronica and jazz. Any such pieces will be auto-rejected. We will only be accepting rock or metal remixes from now on.

Yeah, but that's nothing new

[Level 99]

I would just like to clarify that I do in fact hate medleys. All medleys from now on will be met with severe contempt and maximum obstruction by me. Also, I hate all electronica and jazz. Any such pieces will be auto-rejected. We will only be accepting rock or metal remixes from now on.

Okay, this turned into OCDoD. Wonderful.

Can someone convince Disco Dan to re-sub his Megaman 3 title remix under the new standards? There's a song that had some low encoding. Just looked at the mix specs: 8:41 at 96 kbps. I loved that song.

It's always great to see such improvements come through. So I'll start making remixes that are 1:30 in lenths at 320 kbps, ya? :tomatoface:

[LuketheXjesse]

We will only be accepting rock or metal remixes from now on.

This would not bother me all that much.

Well okay maybe a little.

Okay I admit it I have a soft spot for Orchestral, and there is SOME good electronica, I admit...

[Shadow Wolf]

Hooray! Hopefully this opens up more opportunities for mix development without causing medleyitis.

But mostly I was posting to ask Luke what the SHIT is with that sig?

[DrumUltimA]

yay! now I have two more minutes I can wank with!

[debeerguy007]

Ima tell yo' therapist...

[LuketheXjesse]

Luke what the SHIT is with that sig?

That is a question not even I have the answer to.

[Kaxon]

If you guys put up a higher quality version of Zebesian Midnight by Vigilante I would be insanely happy.

[Dhsu]

Vig mentioned in the review thread he has a 74MB lossless version, so you can just ask him.

But yeah, sweet cuppin' cakes on the higher limit!

[Gario]

The judges made the right decision. Actually, I have a track in the que that's been murdered by the downgrade to make it fit the standard of 6mb. I'm sure I'll update the file before the que reaches the date I subbed, now :)

Thanks, Djp!

[Jewbei]

ah man im hyped now.... now i can make longer trance remixes.....jus kidding....or am i?

[Unununium]

Is there a forum thread, RSS feed, log, mailing list, newsgroup, etc. that keeps track of remix updates? I'd like a way to keep my collection in sync with the site.

[Txai]

Is there a forum thread, RSS feed, log, mailing list, newsgroup, etc. that keeps track of remix updates? I'd like a way to keep my collection in sync with the site.

http://www.ocremix.org/info/Resources_for_Webmasters

[Unununium]

http://www.ocremix.org/info/Resources_for_WebmastersDoes this include updates to existing mixes? The page only mentions newly posted mixes.

[Txai]

Once ReMixes are posted in OCR, they cannot be revised/replaced.

[Liontamer]

If we do this, we'd update torrents and provide a general update, but nothing tied to the ReMix RSS feed.

[DarkeSword]

Also any changes would be noted in the Changelog.

It's not just for removals, folks!

[Unununium]

Also any changes would be noted in the Changelog.
Thanks, found it (http://www.ocremix.org/info/ReMix_Changelog)!

[audio fidelity]

you made zeromus happy

EDIT:: but he will still destroy you

[jmr]

Also any changes would be noted in the Changelog.

It's not just for removals, folks!
Not all previous changes have been noted, though. I know that OCR01489 (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01489/) was replaced with a new remixed & remastered version several months after it was originally posted, yet there's no mention of it in the changelog.

[WillRock]

I have just found this thread and I approve :D

I have thought that 8 megabytes would be a better alternative for a long time :P

[Brandon Strader]

8 Men in Black? What is this MiB you speak of?

The historical binary interpretation of mega is still in wide use by the consumer software industry and use of the mebi prefix is still not common.

Sorry, you gave me a bit of a nerd seizure and I couldn't help it...

[Rozovian]

It's just to be specific, I guess.

It does give us 192 more KiB to work with (than a strict 8 thousand), and nobody has to fret about being a few blocks over 8000K. :D

8MiB: 8 388 608 B
8MB: 8 000 000 B

I like having almost 400K more to work with. :D

[Moguta]

Not all previous changes have been noted, though. I know that OCR01489 (http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01489/) was replaced with a new remixed & remastered version several months after it was originally posted, yet there's no mention of it in the changelog.
Oooo, thanks. I had no idea about this. Awesome news on the 2MB filesize increase, too.

But, DarkeSword... you say that the Changelog is not just for removals, but removals are all that I see there?

[DarkeSword]

Oooo, thanks. I had no idea about this. Awesome news on the 2MB filesize increase, too.

But, DarkeSword... you say that the Changelog is not just for removals, but removals are all that I see there?
Because nothing else really gets changed. :|

[Dafydd]

Does this mean the minimum length required for a song to pass (no matter how good it is) has been increased as well? The shortest mix on the site, afaik, is 0:47, and I doubt anything 2:00 would suffice these days. Is there a hard minimum length?

[Palpable]

Does this mean the minimum length required for a song to pass (no matter how good it is) has been increased as well? The shortest mix on the site, afaik, is 0:47, and I doubt anything 2:00 would suffice these days. Is there a hard minimum length?

Nope, still no minimum length. If a song can be sufficiently developed and interpretive under 2 minutes, we'll take it. It would be rare, but possible.

[Dafydd]

I agree on that last part. Thanks.

[Vampire Hunter Dan]

haha oh noes
Also: hurray. =D