Leaderboard

OverClocked ReMix is 16 years old today! Like I said today on Twitter: "OC ReMix is 16 years old today. Older than YouTube, older than iPods, older than a lot of things on the internet. And we're not done yet." What are some of your favorite memories of OCR throughout the years? How has OC ReMix improved your life?

Happy birthday, OCR! Funny, I've been around for about half the site's lifespan. And it had had a long run back then already. I feel like I've advanced a ton as a musician when trying to get stuff through OCR's evaluation, especially production-wise, getting a grasp of basic mixing tools etc - I really didn't have any of that before wanting to reach that bar. So I've acquired a more rounded skillset. I've also improved my ear a lot, figuring out source tunes and giving feedback (the latter is a great way to learn). I think I also appreciate game music a lot more! Best moments are numerous: working with Pleiade on our Wild Arms project mix was instrumental, really learned a lot about production in this real life collab. Getting the e-mail about first accepted mix was a huge feeling of accomplishment. Tuning to KNGI just when Kyle was about to play an arrangement from me. Mic not working on OCR Talkback. Numerous collabs with Tuberz, Jorito, and then Tuberz AND Jorito. Shining Force II anniversary drive for Rexy's Radio Sega show just might come out on top. But also simply being aware of musicians like AeroZ and Shnabubula.

Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation (CCoI) A Remix Competition Presented by the OverClocked ReMix Forums Introduction The Cult of Dracula strikes again! With their arcane power, they've reached backwards and forwards through time, even into alternate realities, to piece the Castle of Chaos and its surroundings back together, and with it, their fallen master. But the castle has come back jumbled together! Lakes float above towers, forests grow deep underground, and libraries burn perpetually in caverns of fire. Of course, with the pieces of the castle have come the heroes of ages! These heroes must fight through the Transylvanian chaos, sending each area in turn back to the abyss, until only one remains, trapping Dracula's essence and allowing him to be defeated once more. Download Current News Voting for the Final Battle has concluded! While Simon Belmont, represented by OA, has succeeded in his quest, Dracula, represented by Jorito, has had the last laugh. He'll return soon, more powerful than ever! Congratulations to both Jorito and OA! Brackets Alucard Bracket Concluded! Soma Bracket Concluded! Simon Bracket OA: Entrance, 1797 Dracula Bracket Jorito: Crumbling Tower, 1691 The Fallen PlanarianHugger: Plant Castle, 1591 Yami: Underground Caverns, 1797 theshaggyfreak: Munitions Factory, 1917 Esperado: Forbidden Area, 2035 Chernabogue: Underground Caverns, 1691 Chalis: Dance Hall, 2035 Trism: Wilderness, 1698 YoshiBlade: Castle Center, 1852 HoboKa: Burning Town, 1792 Supercoolmike: Inner Halls, 1476 Sir_NutS: Entrance, 1691 Aleix Ramon: Master's Keep, 1944 Magnetic Ether: Inner Quarters, 2035 War Machine: Dungeon, 1691 Gario: Warakiya Village, 1476 wildfire: Abandoned Castle, 1479 Format Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation (CCoI) is mostly a traditional elimination tournament. Each participant will choose the music from one location, stage, or area from any Castlevania game. They will then be paired off against each other, with the winner continuing to the next round. Remixers will have two weeks to write a "vs. remix;" that is to say, a remix featuring the themes of their own area and their opponent's area, and there will be a one-week voting period following each round. Two elements make this compo different from traditional brackets. First, instead of requiring a specific number of participants, any number will be accepted. One or more special rounds will be added to even out the number of participants. These special rounds will require remixes to use both their stage music and a special theme for the round. There also may be three main brackets instead of the usual two if that makes things work out more evenly. Second, there will be an optional loser's bracket. This will be point-based, and based on the number of participants who opt in for each round: the more entries, the more points will be up for grabs in each round. Those who lose in the main bracket will enter the loser's bracket slightly above the median score of all existing participants, to put them on even footing (with a reward for lasting longer in the main bracket). The winner of the loser's bracket will compete with the winner of the winner's bracket at the end: The winner of the winner's bracket can claim ultimate victory whether they win or lose, but they need to share that victory with the winner of the loser's bracket if they lose to them. All participating competitors and voters will adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. So do I just pick a theme? Is it first-come-first-served? I'll be doing a draft for source selection. If you're planning on participating, please post a list of at least three sources you're interested in claiming, in your order of preference. If you're choosing themes you expect to be popular, you should post 4 or 5 choices so you have backup. Since Castlevania doesn't always use consistent names for locations, and the names of the themes themselves aren't always easy to find, please include a YouTube link to each source. Also, if you have any schedule restrictions (planned vacations, exams, etc), please mention them in your signup post. I'll do my best to accommodate. Eligible sources are those which are the music for a stage, area, or location from any game with "Castlevania" in the title. Boss music, character themes, etc. are not eligible. If a source is used for two or three locations in the same game, that's fine, just specify one. If it's used in different games, try to list the game it originally came from (e.g. Castlevania for Vampire Killer). Different participants will not be allowed to choose different versions of the same melody. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is a special case: Silence of Daylight, Bloody Tears, Monster Dance, Dwelling of Doom, and Within These Castle Walls are the eligible sources. Once everyone posts their lists, I'll assign choices based on a weighted point system designed to give the highest possible choices to the greatest number of people. (Some mathematical oddities in the sequential conflict resolution system actually make lower-ranked choices more likely in some cases, so I won't be using that.) Submissions All entries must be sent to me (MindWanderer) via PM on the forums. Please include the name of your bracket and the round number in the subject line of your PM. Please send me your submissions in MP3 format. I'll trust the submitters' ears to choose the best encodings for their music. Please do not use MediaFire, RapidShare, or any other ad-ridden public sharing site as a host for your entry. Tindeck is also bad because it changes your filenames. There are many better options you can and should be using to host your music. I recommend Dropbox or SoundCloud. Make sure your files are downloadable. File names must be in the following format: 1-on-1 round: Remixer - Title (Remixer's Stage and Opponent's Stage).mp3 3-way round: Remixer - Title (Remixer's Stage; First Opponent's Stage; and Second Opponent's Stage).mp3 Dracula Bracket round: Remixer - Title (Remixer's Stage and Round Theme).mp3 Examples: DarkeSword - Blood in the Water (Sunken City of Poltergeists, 1476 and Wilderness, 1698).mp3 MindWanderer - Wallachia Just Keeps On Burning (Warakiya Village, 1476; Burning Town, 1792; and Master's Keep, 1944).mp3 djpretzel - Praying for Time (Clock Tower, 1691 and Prayer, 1476).mp3 Please pay attention to the spaces and punctuation. Your artist name and mix title can be whatever capitalization you want but the stage names must be full and capitalized properly (as listed in the brackets). Properly formatted file names make it much easier for me to tag everything properly, which ensures good, consistent metadata on all the files that will be distributed to voters. You must adhere to this file name standard. If you don't, I will seriously consider disqualifying you, and I don't think anyone wants to be disqualified just because they couldn't name their file properly. Voting Rules and Guidelines Voting is conducted publicly in the Public Voting forum. Every week, a thread will be created for the most recently completed round of remixing. Specific rules will vary from round to round, so be sure to check the main post of each thread for instructions. Things to keep in mind when voting: The most important thing to consider when voting is how well the remix incorporates and arranges both themes. Production and enjoyability should also be considered, but this is primarily an arrangement competition. If you can't hear both themes in the remix, don't vote for it. Everyone is allowed (and encouraged) to vote, including both competitors and non-competitors. Due to the forum's poll mechanic, you are required to choose a remix to vote for in each pairing in the main brackets. If you participated in the round, feel free to vote for yourself. In the Dracula bracket, you will need to choose a first, second, and third-place choice. Do not vote for yourself. Voters will earn points equal to a first-place vote just for voting. Do not post reviews in the voting thread. Compile your reviews for each round into a single post in this thread. Post only once in each voting thread. Everyone must adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. Violations may result in your votes or entries being disqualified. Schedule Signups close: January 7 Remixing begins: Alucard Bracket Round 1: January 13 Soma Bracket Round 1: January 20 Simon Bracket Round 1: January 27 Alucard Bracket Round 2: February 3 Soma Bracket Round 2: February 10 Simon Bracket Round 3: February 17 Dracula (losers') Bracket Round 1: February 17 Hero Finals: March 9 Dracula Bracket Round 2: March 9 Final Battle: March 30 (3-week mixing period) Epilogue: March 30 (3-week mixing period) Conclusion Castlevania was originally released on September 26, 1986, making this coming year its 30th anniversary. I'd like to release a compliation OCR-I on that date if at all possible. So if you make something you like, or that you could like with some extra time to polish it, hang onto it, and I'll ask for submissions following the end of the compo. Art Art supplied by Chernabogue! Get your signature banners here. Aren't you stealing DarkeSword's format just so we can make more Castlevania music for you to listen to? Yep, pretty much.

50 more reviews and I'll hit the 200 mark!!

Every story ever made is a variation of some other story. The same goes for music, art, or any creative work. The details are what vary and make a piece of work "new." Nostalgia sells, but that's not all that is considered. I agree with what AngelCityOutlaw said. I mean, take Tangled, Tangled takes Rapunzel and makes it its own. Tangled is still very much Rapunzel, but it has a considerably different flavor, which prevents it from being "Another telling of Rapunzel" while still keeping the core themes and narrative intact. FF7's remake has a rich background to pull from. I'd say that there's plenty of room for a successful take on the original story, while being true to the themes of the first. The new FF7 will be different, but that doesn't mean it won't be good. Just different. Whether or not it will sell well is something else entirely. I get the feeling that fans will buy it regardless of how it's received. The Hobbit trilogy sold well and those movies were major flops for hardcore fans. I went to see all 3 movies even though I had issues with them. If I had a PS4, I'd probably get FF7's remake, even if it was reviewed poorly because the idea of wandering around a setting as interesting as FF7's with modern graphics is really appealing.

i'm just glad i got a list that was interesting. i had a few extra bucks this holiday and wanted to give someone something that'd really give them a nice day, and it sounds like i succeeded. merry christmas flex =D

"YoshiBlade" a new comer to the OCR brings us a his rendition of SMW Castle Theme mixed with Castlevania. I suppose he thinks himself pretty clever with his write up? Using words not doubt gleaned from his Webster's word of the day calendar, throw about with the same grace as a dog who's gotten hold of a dictionary tearing it to shreds! But on to the music, if it can even be called that. We start with a simple expansive pad, almost certainly purchased from a reputable musician, ( I find it rather dubious this young man is capable of that kind of synth design), before we're introduced to a obnoxiously repetitive bass and a small sample of The Castle Center Theme from Castlevania...I bet he seems to think he can hide his hobbled musicianship by playing a small snippet of actual music, rather than utilizing MIDI flies to hide his naked failure as even the most amateur pianist. The voices are actually sampled quite well...were it 1994. As to his use of lead instrument, I'm curious if here is even aware of the difference between a square wave or a sine wave? Or to the proper use of either one?! Then he introduces some more glitchy aspects, though I am having a hard time determining if this is intentional or a product of his total lack of understanding of even the most basic production techniques...Upon hearing these I was granted a small amount of relief, as I thought I received a corrupted copy and thus would have a reason to NOT review this utter swill, however it seems these glitchy aspects are intentional. Or I'm sure he likes to think. I may seem like I'm droning on, but not nearly as droning as his choice of loop, an obvious loop as even the most basic beat structure is as foreign to his ears, this track is to decent taste ...I wonder Mr. YoshiBlade, how much did you spend to on loops to prop up your obvious failings as a musician and human being, hmm? and then we approach a vocal sample Oh-Ho, Yes indeed Mr.YoshiBlade you know how to sample a voice, bravo, Im sure you sat smugly at your computer when you made this, no doubt stroking your overblown ego, with your own brand of praise. Pray Tell, was it difficult to press record than play? Or perhaps you kept forgetting which in which order to do so,hmm? I shan't even waste my time with his piddling ending, no doubt a portent of his career on the OCR short, lackluster and lazy! Let us hope this is the last we hear of this Mr. YoshiBlade. I return to my warm Bree and Burgundian Chablis, disgusted with the depth at which Video Game Remixes have stooped to!

I think the change in combat system is a sufficient middle finger to nostalgia-seekers.

Also probably my favorite ocremix album. So many different subgenres and styles of EDM keep it interesting and fresh. Good Job Flexstyle and team! I really enjoy most of the tracks, but the highlights for me are Koopa Reaper, Eet's a Nu World, Caravan Bowser, Do Yoshi What I See? and PL41|\|. I need to express how much I love "Eet's a Nu World is". So. Damn. Catchy. Usually when remixers change the pacing/timing of a source melody it sounds forced and unnatural. But here everything just flows so damn smoothly. This ReMix fixes my bad mood every time I hear it.

Definitely gonna have to check out Punch Brothers, then, since I'm officially now a big fan of Nickel Creek. I grew up listening to a lot of bluegrass as a kid, and it remains one of my favorite genres. I'm super happy that you got me that record, despite my reputation as "the EDM guy" here on OCR. My vinyl collection is solely comprised of either albums that have some sort of cultural and historical significance, or things that are oddball and interesting (such as the set of barbershop quartet records Stevo gave me this year), or albums that have earned a place in my "favorites of all time" list. This, I think, will be falling squarely into that last category. And like I said, there are some specialty shops here in Phoenix that carry Cheerwine, as well as a ton of other great specialty sodas, and I spent a lot of money in my late teens and very early twenties on various kinds of soda. Still a total soda junkie, but it's a luxury item that has taken a back seat to a lot of other things now that I'm a "responsible adult" or something (and by that I mean I actually have bills now, lol). However, that means that when I do receive something like a whole four-pack of the stuff, I'm super thrilled! I'm saving the hot chocolate for when I have an evening to sit down and relax. It sounds amazing and I'm looking forward to it! Seriously, this was a fantastic gift, and I'm incredibly grateful. You, sir Burr, are a gentleman and a scholar.

I do, yeah. Was super reliable until the US release of Saga Frontier. :'-(

hey, this was me! =D i'm so happy you're into it. you did say you wanted my favorite album on lp and interesting soda or chocolate, so there you go =) for those who don't know: 1. cheerwine is a primarily SC/NC-based pop company that's actually one of the oldest (if not the oldest) family-owned fountain drink maker in the country. they make what's basically the best black-cherry pop in existence. it's also very reasonable as an add-on item from amazon, and (best of all!) should be available everywhere in the states in grocery stores by 2017 or so. i'm surprised you've tried it before, flex, i checked and didn't see you'd lived in the carolinas area. i only had it once or twice and absolutely loved it. 2. mexican hot chocolate is really good, and the stuff made the old-style artisanal way is the best...stone-ground chocolate that's a bit gritty in a pleasant way. fantastic for sitting around and listening to...excellent bluegrass on lp! speaking of which... 3. nickel creek (and, by extension, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile) is one of my favorite musical groups, and 'why let the fire die?' is easily my favorite album of theirs. i was super nervous you'd be like "ew bluegrass" so i'm really happy you're into it! they play extremely progressive music, stuff that does a lot of mixing of styles including jazz, folk, and rock. it's pretty involved stuff, has some excellent lyrics, and is a real musical journey. i have been more influenced in my own music by this group than any other. i wasn't super excited to see that the lp changes the order of the tracks, but it's still a fantastic experience. if you like this, flex, check out Thile's new albums under Punch Brothers. their newest album, Phosphorescent Blues, is even more on the progressive side, about as much folk as kid a is rock. really, really experimental in an awesome way. the first track (familiarity) blew my mind with how imaginative it was.

Like I said, if there is a game that narratively has undertones of encouraging misogynistic behavior (gameplay that "rewards" players for taking in-game actions that are sexist), then like I said definitely has the effect that you claim. As far as actual common sexist tropes like damsel in distress storylines and sexual objectification, I see no reason to believe that those things translate to internalizing sexual behaviors/actions. What are they internalizing? The belief that women are weak? The belief that women are sexual objects, or that their value is decided by breast size? And that these new beliefs translate to sexist actions in the future? Didn't we just have an argument where you said you can't influence peoples' belief and motivations to make them not do sexist things, but now you can when you DO want to make them do sexist things? So peoples' minds and "invisible" characters ARE "intangibly" malleable, but only inevitably to make them worse? And suddenly now these new internalized beliefs matter when you just got done telling me we don't care about sexist beliefs/attitudes, only actions? You'll need to clarify that; I find it self-contradicting. I also might be lumping you in with Bleck's stuff too much, please point it out. Here's the bottom line. You're telling me we can't fix people internally. However, you're right now trying to tell me that media can and does damage people internally (which is how I'm interpreting what you say is seeing sexist things in media and internalizing those ideas). So why can we internally damage people but not also internally fix them? Or do you believe that in conjunction with your belief that sexist media makes sexist people (who do sexist things in real life) that progressive media makes progressive people (who do progressive things in real life). I feel like to have a reasonable point of view, you either need to believe both or believe neither. I believe neither, and if you believe both, then yes, I can agree to disagree. Because then you're being consistent. But I don't see this agreeing with the assertion that you can't change peoples' beliefs and motivations, because I see these both as doing just that. I see your entire issue as doing just that. And my shtick is that there are better ways to do just that, that extend outside of the confines of media. He's still talking about the subject of evaluating if a person is or is not sexist, not necessarily extending to how it relates to solving sexism in games.

I wanted to panel this one because I remember Nyx had this marked as Mod Review but never got any staff feedback, and some of the artist's comments in Workshop thread came across defensive to me, so I felt it appropriate to send this here to give some more feedback. To me, this feels highly conservative and doesn't introduce very much original writing or ideas to the melody, though the few harmonic variations and the overall mashup of the two sources does have some merit by OCR standards. Using the drum loop and the "birdcussion" as a sample is cool, though I feel like you mixed the metallic percussion kind of loud during the transitions - for example, the fill at :38 is startling and out of place, to me. The metallic loop sounds really nice when it's mixed lower and more in the background. The delay effects are well-used and help give the track more texture and movement, I like how you utilized that. Production-wise, the samples and synth design are not very exciting and introduce very little texture to the mix. Experiment with some more interesting synth sound and fills and effects - Skrypnyk and Timaeus gave some really good feedback in the Workshop thread. The arrangement sticks very close to the structure/feel of the original, and there are some sections where you have a lot of countermelodies playing but no lead where it just feels aimless. Sorry to say, this track just isn't working for me on a lot of levels My guess is that, by this point, you've moved onto other projects and I already know you've improved your craft with more recent remixes, but I wanted to make sure you received more validation on the feedback you received in the Workshop thread because I feel like they were very good critiques that still apply to the final submitted version. I'm excited to see what you submit to us in the future NO

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone - and props to timaeus for the breakdown, too! I didn't want to ramble on for too long in the writeup, but one of the reasons I wanted this to be #3000 is because I feel like it was kind of a risk, for me. It's not a genre that's rocket science, perhaps, but it's hard to get the details right with emulations, entirely in the digital realm. It's also not really a style I've done much work in, period, although it's the type of music I listen to all the time. At any rate, I wasn't exactly sure if people would dig it and see in it what I see in it - the allure of the core idea of doing "Dark World" as a laid-back, somewhat trippy 60's rock groove. I'm really glad it resonated with more listeners than I thought it might, and it really motivates me to do more music in general. I may never return to this particular style ever again, but I'm glad I gave it a shot, and I'm glad it found an audience!

Definitely love cynics PRE-EMPTIVELY complaining. Let's get something very clear: with all respect to vertexguy, we were justified in rejecting those old covers many years ago; they were short, undeveloped, minimally interpretive, not particularly personalized, and not mixed well. We also HAVE a posted ReMix by Chris, because it was everything those old submission were not, i.e. mixed well, and more interpretive. He didn't have to compromise his approach to music in order to get posted: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02027/ There are such things as interpretive covers, covers that are well-performed and demonstrate a unique interpretation of the source music, and we love to post them. Some things with your arrangement: The guitar performance is cool. The percussion was OK, but the writing was on the bland side, and it didn't quite gel with the rest of your performance. For the backing pattern, you might as well have just taken a MIDI and put some better samples on it; it sounds too close to the original "Funky Stars" with little interpretation. At least you have some parts where the guitar doubles it, and you have some original writing involved as well, so that goes in the right direction of making the arrangement more interpretive; but it's not enough in that direction. In any case, it's not a bad track, but would need to be developed further for what we're looking for. HOWEVER, it's not actually eligible in the first place to be submitted, because the original song is not from music originally created for a video game. Apart from being an original demoscene song made in January 1996 that wasn't created for Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, the song being used in a Worms 2 cracktro doesn't mean it was created for an original video game soundtrack. That would be like ripping the Blu-ray of Games of Thrones, adding in your own cracktro with music promoting the fact that you ripped it, and then claiming the song used was part of the Game of Thrones television soundtrack. Cracktro music is ineligible to be arranged for OC ReMix, so even if the arrangement were all sorts of amazing and fit the standards, we couldn't accept this track. That said, you're not warning anyone about anything. Get over yourself, stupidly claiming that we either "don't get" your music or are too biased against XYZ genre/styles to post your music. You clearly don't listen to what's posted at all, or you'd realize that we have plenty of music with live musicians, whether it's rock, metal, jazz, piano, acoustic guitar, or orchestral. So to claim we discourage live musicians is hilariously ignorant. Also, calling one of our moderators a "faggot" means you're immature. We've had people acting even douchier than you eventually come to understand that they were being stupid. If you get over yourself and grow up, we'd be more than happy to hear another submission from you. Don't fuck around. - Larry NO Override