[Liontamer]

Originally Posted by tuffy (NeoGAF)

They have sold fan CDs of Xenogears, Chrono Trigger and other Square titles before. These sort of doujin music projects are fairly common and aren't typically shut down so long as the music is remixed and the performances are original.

Except that's 100% wrong and we've never done that here. They're probably confusing us with KFSS Studios or OneUp Studios (Project Majestic Mix/SquareDance/Xenogears Light/etc) as far as sold Square arrangement albums. And those were licensed indirectly through services like Harry Fox, IIRC, as they were being sold for profit.

Worth repeating, since I'm seeing the claim, but no one's being "paid" for this Kickstarter. The excess will go to improving the album (both the digital and physical), expanding what the supporters get for rewards, and then anything left would go for bandwidth/site costs long-term. No one is achieving personal gain with a cent of this fundraising money, otherwise we'd have musicians with pitchforks coming. We've not sold or profited from promoting free arrangements for 12+ years, but if you're going to complain about this as far as a Kickstarter, you might as well criticize what little we get from the Google AdSense ads. They don't make much money, but you could argue we're getting "paid" by Google, when everything is fed back into costs for the site (bandwidth, printing albums, promoting OCR and the albums that come out). If we can afford to do printed promotional copies of future albums after FF6 because of this Kickstarter, for example, it's worth it, but it would be used as a helpful cushion for future costs, not money that's being pocketed by staff or artists.

Originally Posted by Soul_Pie (NeoGAF)

90% of the stuff I've heard of OC Remix has been absolutely terrible, most of them have absolutely no sense of what made the original pieces so good in the first place. I mean, often the whole "feel" of the piece will be changed while the original composer's intention was to fit the piece in with the mood and theme of the level in-game. Once you stray too far from that it fails to actually have any sense of what it is to be a videogame theme.

Always annoying when fake hyperbolic stats get thrown out there.

Anyway, this boils down to...

*** "I couldn't play the game with this version in it." ***

So what? That's not necessarily not the point of an interpretive arrangement. It's not designed to be dropped into the original game as a replacement for the original music, so no one should be looking at it that way. The point is to creatively interpret the game music with different ideas, oftentimes in new styles and genres. If you need something to sound like the original music, go listen to the original music. But it's silly to criticize the arrangements for something they're not trying to be.

Originally Posted by Soul_Pie (NeoGAF)

A whole heap of them just take the main melody and add in a dodgy techno drum beat and ramp up the cheesiness to maximum levels.

Truly spoken like someone who has absolutely no idea what music has been posted here, but spoken with conviction.

[derako]

I agree with Lion here. As a fellow remixer I would like to think that the music I've contributed to site adds different twists to the original themes. I agree that some remixes are better than others but the roots of failure lay in the seeds of comparison. It's so easy to post whatever you want to say on the internet. I think that in this case we can say that someone was just having a bad day and decided to take it out on OCRemix.

I'm excited about this project, I don't care what anyone says, numbers speak volumes to how people really feel about this.

-Derek

[DrumJ8]

Meh you can't please everyone all of the time. Some people will say "gross this sounds like nothing like the original" while others will say "gross this sounds too much like the original." Some people just like complaining.

Some of my favorite ReMixes are the ones that take the source and creatively change the genre and style into something new and different; others may not agree. But as derako said, the proof is in the numbers. "OCR is an organization dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form." The goal is to pay tribute to VGM composers and VGM as a whole and there are many people who recognize that and want to support it.

[IsolinearMoogle]

Originally Posted by DrumJ8

Meh you can't please everyone all of the time. Some people will say "gross this sounds like nothing like the original" while others will say "gross this sounds too much like the original." Some people just like complaining.

Ditto.

Unfortunate that some folks seem to want to pick apart this Kickstart solicitation, and OCR in general. I couldn't be happier about all the professional-quality free music I have gotten from OCR over the last decade, and I think this pledge drive is being done just fine (clearly the naysayers are in the minority with the $35k+ that has already been pledged).

I have never contributed to OCR before, and would not buy a hard copy of this album (I'm all digital and vinyl at home), but something about the way this is being presented left no doubt in my mind that I would donate as soon as I saw it, and I will probably keep my disc for a good long time as a reminder of how proud I was to be able to contribute along with so many other good folks to make an awesome project like this a reality.

And I would imagine most of the 600 folks who have already contributed get that we are not buying a product, but donating and getting a thank-you gift for doing so. NPR and other nonprofits do this sort of thing all the time, and I think at a similar ratio of product value to donation amount.

So, in essence, kudos to the folks who put this together, and congratulations on the awesome response!! (...and please do let us know what is going to happen to all the extra moneys when you have figured that out)

[Neblix]

My concern is OCR's underestimation of their backing. I think it was poorly done and they're going to have a lot of trouble figuring what to do with the 200-300% excess without passing it off as profit.


Should've set a funding ceiling limit for the Kickstarter. If Kickstarter doesn't let you do that, I would say this isn't really something that should go on Kickstarter.

[OA]

Originally Posted by Neblix

My concern is OCR's underestimation of their backing. I think it was poorly done and they're going to have a lot of trouble figuring what to do with the 200-300% excess without passing it off as profit.

it'll be fine, we have so many ideas for additional coolness, we won't be able to do them all regardless of funding.

[Brandon Strader]

Originally Posted by OA

it'll be fine, we have so many ideas for additional coolness, we won't be able to do them all regardless of funding.

Specifically the Teen Agent Special Edition Box Set and collectible card game

[Neblix]

Originally Posted by OA

it'll be fine, we have so many ideas for additional coolness, we won't be able to do them all regardless of funding.

Give away Komplete Ultimate bundles as prizes for our Mega Man remix competitions? :P

[DarkeSword]

Originally Posted by Brandon Strader

I just want to point out that all of the answers given concerning the Vampire Variations situation were completely inaccurate.

Vampire Variations was going to be a 2 disc professional print for a donation of $8 each, whereas FF6 is going to be 4 discs for $50.

I can't help but feel slightly peeved at the way this was answered, and also wouldn't mind knowing the actual print cost per disc of FF6 when that information is available.

In that thread djp said they should price VV at "2 to 4 dollars"... shouldn't it be reasonable then that this 4-disc album could have been priced at 4 to 8 dollars?

No.

Remember, you're not paying $50 to purchase your own copy of the 4-disc print. You're donating $50 towards funding a very large print run.

Think of it this way: you're not paying for one copy. You're paying for a bunch of copies, and we toss one of them your way as a thanks.

When all is said and done and we've sent out all of the backers' rewards, we still need to have copies of the album left over for promotional stuff.

Kickstarter isn't a store, and people shouldn't think of backer rewards as purchases, even in the not-for-profit way. The situations are not really the same at all.

[José the Bronx Rican]

Originally Posted by OA

it'll be fine, we have so many ideas for additional coolness, we won't be able to do them all regardless of funding.

My idea to fly a crew to Hollywood to produce the 30-minute trailer was taken off the table early.