[Liontamer]

Originally Posted by Brandon Strader

The panel doesn't usually mind too much if a game is more obscure, but they have been known to share their feelings about whether a source "sucks". One case I know where usage of the source actually contributed to the NO of a song. But in general they're supposed to be very receptive of the source and genre of a remix regardless of whether they personally like it

Vig hates Pokemon music, but we don't ACTUALLY judge submissions based on whether we like the source or not (Vig included). We'll comment on sources fairly regularly, but it doesn't affect votes.

[Brandon Strader]

Originally Posted by Level 99

Get that crap out of my thread, Brandon. This is a newbies guide, not a TEEN AGENT guide.

When I was a 'noobie', I made Teen Agent remixes. It worked for me, and it could work for that fellow as well!

[TroisNyxEtienne]

As for the IRC, this PC apparently doesn't run sites with IRC prefixes. Not sure why, but yeah. Tried it on Firefox and it didn't work; tried it on IE and it crashed the connexion.

I'll try when I next get onto my own PC (I'm on the university's computers), but I cannot guarantee being on when all the people who share my genre are.

[jnWake]

@Stevo: When you started coming here did you know anything about music?
I'm new here too but I have some experience composing so I expect a time shorter than 5 years to get posted...

Also, what would you people recommend to being producing? I have a lot of MIDI files (arranged by me) that I'd like to give good production, but I'm not sure how to do it. I've been looking at the Reason guides posted in the Workshop, but I haven't found much about importing MIDI files.

[Level 99]

Originally Posted by TroisNyxEtienne

As for the IRC, this PC apparently doesn't run sites with IRC prefixes. Not sure why, but yeah. Tried it on Firefox and it didn't work; tried it on IE and it crashed the connexion.

I'll try when I next get onto my own PC (I'm on the university's computers), but I cannot guarantee being on when all the people who share my genre are.

Are you trying to run the actual address of the IRC server in a browser window, or are you saying your computer can't access the java applet that is hosted for connection to the OCR IRC? If its the former, that's likely not going to work in any browser. You need a client, like mIRC or XChat2 or even Pidgin, to connect to an IRC server and then select a channel or channels to talk in. If it is the latter, not sure but maybe your ISP is blocking the protocol.

That probably sounds like technological mumbo-jumbo, but the bottom line is if you can't connect through the applet in the browser, you need to get a client program and connect through that. There's a few guides on the web for connecting to IRC, depending on the program you use. I recommend using XChat 2, which has a free Windows port and a pretty good setup guide.

Originally Posted by jnWake

@Stevo: When you started coming here did you know anything about music?
I'm new here too but I have some experience composing so I expect a time shorter than 5 years to get posted...

Also, what would you people recommend to being producing? I have a lot of MIDI files (arranged by me) that I'd like to give good production, but I'm not sure how to do it. I've been looking at the Reason guides posted in the Workshop, but I haven't found much about importing MIDI files.

When I started coming here I did in-fact know some stuff about music. I initially got started arranging VGM over at a site called VGMix 2, which has been defunct for a while. There's a lot of history between VGMix and OCR that I really don't want to get into in this thread as its not on topic, but suffice it to say I was not coming at this with zero experience. I've been playing guitar from an early age and been self-teaching instruments and music creation for a long time. I was in a bunch of punk bands in high school and college, but only started making music in a DAW at around 2002/2003. I didn't use any MIDI sequencing besides crappy drums until something like 2007, and my main setup was a POD 2.0 direct-in, a Casio keyboard, and a Hohner acoustic recording into a $15 Radioshack microphone. I started trying to submit to OCR in 2004-ish, I think. Compared to what people come here knowing at the get-go today, I was about as bottom of the barrel as you could get when it comes to knowing things that would get me up to OCR standards

The whole five years thing is just an example of an outer maximum of time to achieve the level of quality demanded by the site standards, not an average or aproximate for anyone. I included it to let people know that just because you don't get a song passed within a month, or six months, or a year, or two years, that there's something wrong. People learn and grow at different rates, and that you shouldn't feel that any amount of time is too long to become posted. Basically, don't give up arbitrarily because you've spent X amount of time and not achieved success, as that's not a valid excuse if you really want to achieve something.

As for your MIDI import question, that's less a matter of what program to use (outside of personal preference for program workflow) as long as it does have MIDI import. Its more about using samples. tweaking samples, mixing, and mastering. FL Studio, Reaper, Sonar, Logic, Cubase, Reason, whatever can take MIDI and use some kind of VST or sample plugins is a valid base for upping the production on MIDI stuff. You'll have to look up information in the manuals for how to import MIDI, but there should also be information scattered around about the best way to humanize and tighten MIDI data, and how to use sampling effectively. Hope that answers your question!

[WillRock]

Ok, as a guy who larry has named as getting rejected a large amount of times before getting posted, I thought I might make a post about the process of how I got to the point of having 25 mixposts on OCR (and more coming! :D) It might help you guys figure out how to help yourselves here...

Ok, so I got to OCR after some success on youtube with my remixes, my subscribers had told me to come here and get mixes posted. So first thing I did, I submitted this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ulzXpIxaU. Now, I waited 5 months for a response, thinking that the site just didn't function with the judges panel for a while, when I finally got a rejection, which basically said everything was wrong with my remix.
Now, first things first... don't do what I did, don't submit to the judges panel blindly. The standards are a little specific and even if you're an experienced musician with good production skills, that doesn't guarantee you to get past the arrangement standards. Unless you're a talented guy with good production skills and a lucky arranging style that fits with the criteria of OCR, you're going to get rejected first time.
So I submitted blindly again, and got an instant rejection in the form of an email. Now I got a little annoyed at this, and one thing thats very important is that if you want to become an OCRemixer... getting a grudge against the judges is not the way to do it. Don't ask me why, but anyone who does, just doesn't improve their craft in the same way as others... maybe thats why they get disillusioned (its not easy to get posted folks) but blaming the judges for doing their job really isn't the way to go
So I decided to head to what is now the Workshop forum, to post my remixes there for quick feedback, which is what ALL of you should do from the start because its not only a good place to learn, but its a good place to find out what the judges look for without waiting 5 months for a response. Now, I updated a fair few of my older remixes, but they just weren't cutting the mustard apparently so I started one from scratch, getting feedback as I went along, and I came up with my first mixpost, Mountain Of Dreams. Now, this is what I started with: http://tindeck.com/listen/qwwj. The WIP forum helped me get it to the point of the OCRemix version.
So through them I got my first OCRemix. Its the way forward folks, the WIP forum. Now, once you've got your first mixpost, don't get cocky, you'll get rejected again for sure. Chances are your first mixpost was a fluke (like mine) and you'll get about 5 or so rejections at least before you start to do stuff constantly over the bar. You'll get there tho, with practice.
Use the knowledge available here to you, I joined OCR at the same time I joined university and I learnt more here than I did there. Not kidding. Its a gold mine of music technology teaching basically, and if you use it well, you'll go above and beyond OCRs calling :D

[Yami]

As someone who a few weeks ago got his first really hard mod-review rejection in the WIP forum can only say, don't give up and listen to the advice. The judgement may be hard, but it never occured to me that it was unfair.

[jnWake]

Thanks Stevo for the answer. I am starting to experiment with Reaper and I hope to post a WIP in the Workshop sometime "soon"!

[Gollgagh]

Originally Posted by Modus

Me, two years ago: " I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO REMIX LIKE YOU FOLKS AND GET POSTED!"

Me, a month ago: "Dear god, I've never submitted anything.."

Me, now: "I want to lay down a drum pattern that doesn't sound like an autistic monkey is playing it."

I'm fairly certain that an autistic monkey would lay down a better beat than I.

[Brandon Strader]

Originally Posted by WillRock

So first thing I did, I submitted this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ulzXpIxaU.

Not to be a wiener, but you should totally remake this, with actual rock in it, like rhythm guitars! Panned both ways! And it'd be awesome.

Originally Posted by Gollgagh

I'm fairly certain that an autistic monkey would lay down a better beat than I.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJLBOPfGGl4