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Also, FWIW, you are right in some regard on the length alone that it was too much of a slow-roll and overambitious to a fault. ...I don't know. It was a darling I wasn't willing to kill, considering some background circumstances / context behind this remix from the album itself that hits pretty close to home. ...It was a vision indeed, but not without its flaws. I'll just do better next time.

Hey there. That's a fair take, and I understand if and when people have a strong reaction to a beloved song or OST of theirs, and SeeDs/FFVIII is no exception. I'm...a bit upset by this, honestly, but you respectively are entitled to your opinion and feelings, and I'm sure you won't be the first or last in this regard. My music--as is obvious even on the Judges' Panel--is seemingly very...divisive...be it because of how I went about producing and mixing it or the composition itself. At the time, I was pretty chuffed and proud of this remix...given when it happened, the work it took, and the final result...but I'd be remiss to say that this amongst other things kind of hits me in a way where currently I have to disassociate my emotions from my logic brain...and all I can say is this: Thank you for your honesty in the end, and all I can do is apologize that this version of the Extreme doesn't resonate with you. Quite a few of my remixes, even if or when they make it past the bar, has that issue. Perhaps it's "growing pains", as people call it. This track was a first for many things for me: 100+ track mixing, in-depth vocal mixing that isn't just ad libs here or there or chopped loops, rapping to my own musical shit, etc. By no means is any of this an excuse to have what may in fact be a...less-than-stellar remix, and people will say I'm being harsh on myself in behind your retuned review, but I digress. It is what it is. ...I'm unsure if I'll ever come back to this and do a re-cut / deep-cut and change it drastically as I get better at this game, but again, I'm very sorry to you and anybody else who just couldn't or didn't vibe with this. I chose this track and the other sources I sewed into it because they, too, deeply resonated with me, as both a casual listener and as an artist. FF8 in particular is the dark horse / black sheep and underrated game of the series, and I chose SeeDs as my first jumping off point because at the time I felt brave enough to do so and I like the game and OST, despite its flaws, and equally my own flaws and trepidation to dare try. I...don't know. Be that as it may, I'm glad I did, I'm sad it didn't work for you, and I'll...just have to try harder and better next time. I, and I'm sure the rest of us here, appreciate your hard work in reviewing our tracks and being real with yourself in this instance to just tell it like it is to me. I'd rather have a genuine reaction than a falsehood to my work. People doubting it and me are inevitable and I'll just...try again to pick up the pieces and continue onward. I'm not letting another creative writing or art pursuit flop happen again. . . This is about as genuine and positive I can be in this moment in response to ya. . . :) And it's not a reflection on you, but on myself in how poorly I look at my OWN work and person. Introspection is a bitch. Thanks again. I'll take all of your points and do what I can with them on future projects or further revisions to past ones. Take care of yourself and speak soon. o/

I've been listening to this for many years (nearly 20 maybe at this point) and I still love it!

Nah mate, AI's been writing essays for folks longer than it's been writing music ;) Most ChatGPT essays are better than the average human can muster. The average person doesn't even tend to make music, so the bar there is less clear. Seriously though, having an AI textually auto-describe how much AI you used in a piece of your music actually sounds like a plausible and not-entirely-dystopian potentiality. I'd even say it's probable. A couple other policy points to consider: What about using ChatGPT, etc. for lyrics that you then use in a mix/submission? Again, I would hope one would tweak that output, but some of those tweaks can just be accomplished with additional prompts, refining things further. People are generally trash at writing lyrics to begin with (my hand is up, too!), and pop lyrics are often mindless and repetitive, e.g. baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby. Baby. Baby. Yeah. Baby. So while a one-size-fits-all ban on AI might seem reasonable, I wonder about a lyrical/text exception, or at least additional clarification for this use case. It's a little incomplete to throw shade on the corpus being used to train generative AI (re: ethicality) without also having an explicit policy for training AI using OC ReMixes. Is it allowed? I vaguely recall bringing this up w/ staff but I believe the consensus was that a combination of unenforceability & general lack of clarity made such a policy unwise or unnecessary or both. That might still be the case, but then I guess I'm just not sure about throwing that specific shade without such a policy in place.

Sounds like Bowser took up meditation with an Indian guru. Maybe he'll find inner peace or give up on Princess Peach (like either would ever happen) ... This remix takes a classic theme and interprets it in the framework of an Indian Raga (a style OCR doesn't get often). The result has a lot of beauty and character. I think the instrumentation is well done and perfect for meditation. Honestly good job on the remix.

Well here are a few tips based on some grueling experiences I went through licensing my tracks, hope they help. To start, I use https://soundrop.com/ as my distro service; it's not as fast or as friendly as it used to be unfortunately (live chat disappeared in favor of a slow ticketing service, for example), but I still get monthly play reports and it's great about regularly adding (and including your materials) on new platforms as they become available. As to licensing the music, here's the kicker: they require proof of a U.S. release of the original track. That means before you even want to try licensing something, see if the source soundtrack album exists on Apple Music or Amazon (the two they put the most stock in). (That part also used to be easier, but the restrictions changed a few years ago.) If you can hunt down an ISRC (album) or UPC code (track), even better! Musicbrainz.org is a great resource for that. For example: https://musicbrainz.org/search?query=Grim+Fandango&type=release&limit=25&method=indexed Each track you want to license gives you a spot to include a write-up, so come with everything - track title from the game, composer, soundtrack title, official album release links, codes... you'll be in good shape. If the track you're licensing has multiple source tunes, be prepared to include both in the description. Sadly there's a ton of material I couldn't license after maaaaany attempts, because even though I could prove US game release, note the production company and show the Wikipedia article, there was no official album. Doom 2, for example. I found some album records online but if you look closely they say "bootleg" as the "status" and that doesn't work well. Not official enough. Anyways I hope that helps, take care!

Here's a Hip-Hop/Electro arrangement of mostly 'Wood' and a little bit of 'Ruby' (just the ending) from Blocks That Matter. Originally released on the official remix album 'Reworks That Matter' which was directed by the game's composer Morusque/Nurykabe. This version is an edit I did recently, slightly shorter than the original and focusing on the more rhythmical parts of the remix. The mixing has been redone and a few touch ups have been made. My inspiration for the first half was the soundtrack from the anime Full Metal Panic, and the second half was inspired by the soundtrack from ArtePiazza's Opoona. Hopefully it's enjoyable even if you're not familiar with this fun indie puzzler. ☺️ It's a really joyful and creative soundtrack. I'll link the sources below if you're interested. <3

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Co-signing on what the guys said above. Great sounding guitar work here! Panning is way too wide for my taste. Drums are too quiet in the mix, as is the bass. The arrangement is too simple, too straightforward and way too short. Ending is a cold, unnatural cutoff. This seems more like a concept wip than a finished product. I agree with Larry and Brad that DoD would be a great place to refine your arrangement and production skills. I'd love to hear more from you in the future, in terms of a fully-fleshed out arrangement, because as Larry said the musicianship is most definitely there! NO

Those first 30 seconds are nothing short of amazing. What an excellent way to start a remix. Cool wubs and even cooler arrangement! 😎

I have been summoned! Honestly, I'm glad I was because my original review was weak sauce. I couldn't really tell you the differences between this version and the one I heard originally, so this is basically a fresh review. In my quest to review as many OCremixes as I can, I found myself defaulting to giving a positive review to each and every review. I know how much of a difference even a small review or comment can make, and I wanted to be that positive force that encouraged others to make music! However, I have a very long and personal relationship with the FF8 soundtrack. And the Extreme is one of my favorite boss themes of all time. It is a soundtrack I am deeply familiar with and I'll be completely honest, I am not a fan of this remix. My original review was glib because I didn't say what I wanted to say. So my apologies to you for not leaving a genuine review. You are going to get one now though, definitely the longest review I've ever done on this site! (So far). I will try to be as constructive as I can with this review, and keep in mind this is all subjective opinion. I very much applaud and appreciate what you've done here and the clear care and passion you put into this. I'll start with what I enjoy. The transition to the spoken work/rap section from 6:00 to 6:24 was my favorite part of the track, those wood blocks were FIRE. The rap section and the spoken word bits in general were very cool. The intro soundscape was very enjoyable, specifically the first 30 seconds. and the usage of the FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC source was very well done. On to my criticisms. My first one is the pacing of the remix. In my original review I mentioned that it uses the time well. Upon further review, I do not think that is not the case. Even though I think the intro is very cool, 3 minutes to ramp up into the energetic portion of the song is way too long, it could have been it's own remix and would have been great but in the context of a single remix it overstays its' welcome. I think a good minute could have been cut from the intro. Even though I enjoyed the rap section, it was way too short and felt very out of place, it really felt like it should be its' own remix as well. The long length of this remix doesn't really give me a good chance to latch onto anything in particular and kind of causes the whole remix to wash over you like a fog. My second criticism from a musical standpoint is that in the "Tension and Release" aspect of music, there was too much tension and not enough release. To start, after the song-length intro. We get to some energetic stuff starting at 2:52. That part was very cool, like many of the transitions in this remix. The rhythmic chanting voices, that super cool Buzzy bass.... the strings that come in at 2:58 were weak, but not a deal-breaker... but then it just kind of... shifts to 3:04 - 3:15. After all that build up and a cool transition it just kind of flops. I felt musically blue-balled, and it wouldn't be the last time. My favorite part of the original source is that epic climatic section that dives right into the somber piano/harp. It kind of encapsulates everything that makes the Extreme such a good boss music and a great representative of Ultimicia. However in this remix, I didn't get any of that. I felt like I got played at 5:04 and 5:26 and once again at 8:34. From a creative standpoint, I appreciate the subversion of the expectation, but as an enjoyer of the source, it felt incredibly unsatisfying. Production is a bit off as well. Everything felt kind of flimsy. Some of the lead synth instruments really needed some protein. (Especially that lead that comes in at 3:58.) The drums barely had any presence (Especially the snares) and tended to be very repetitive. The end result is that a lot of this remix doesn't really pack any sort of punch. Again, I hope this review doesn't discourage you. There are things I liked about this remix and would probably like more if this remix was chopped up into more cohesive regular sized remixes. Keep making cool music! 😄

That 4 note repeating pattern is very ear-wormy. The effects of the ear-worm are amplified by the excellent production of this remix. The intro and ending for this remix are incredibly strong. Excellent job with this remix!

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https://discord.gg/ocremix - I'm @Xaleph

Another heavy guitar track from me, this one starts off as a little more conservative of an arrangement before breaking free a bit more toward the end. Original Source: I'm pretty happy with how this is taking shape so far. But if I really get critical the drums could probably use a little more attention. And it still may be a little too close to the source for OCR's taste? What do you think?

Could you post a link to your Discord? So far I lurk on other people's Discord servers, so I should know my way around. I hope so anyway, lol.

Echoing the question about the playlist actually existing... In case it does, I can add a few of mine:

Oh, snap!!! It's updated, @CJthemusicdude!! Thank you so much, @Liontamer! ♡

I love your art, it’s really good! I know of a few items we need, I can talk to the others to see what was required. I know for sure we’d need an album cover and a logo. I have a concert for my son tonight but I’ll be in discord later.

It was only way down the line that I forgot another level of humanizing that I didn't do, which was automating the sustain pedal. That definitely would have helped with a couple spots that were mentioned by the judges. All I can do is learn from that and apply it to future work. Thanks for the love all :)

Obsessed with how great the drums are 😍 Stunning arrangement and performance all around!

Was this playlist ever made? I would love to have it saved in my library. Especially great for games with bad to no music to play in the background, and I'd have to do some research, but I think this all falls in the "stream friendly" category of music.

This is so gorgeous! @pixelseph's comment also seems to imply it's all midi programmed, not live played, which is blowing my mind. Stunning piece.

Is there anyone doing the art? I'll be interested to contribute some art. I used to play Tetris Attack with my wife as well. Is there any requirement you have in mind, Xaleph? I'll be happy to discuss. I know I have not been around this forum for 10+ years, lol. I previously drew & painted the art for "Sound of Speed" (Sonic 1 album). You can also check out my works on my website: https://www.dennyiskart.com/

It's such a nostalgic blast from the past. Tollis did an amazing job capturing the essence of the original while giving it a fresh twist. I can almost picture myself back in the '90s, playing the game with this tune blasting in the background.