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Hey fellow OC ReMixers! I wanted to share the first episode in my new YouTube series, Game Audio Analysis. As a composer and sound designer for video games, I'll be using these videos to share knowledge, tips, and tricks for other aspiring game audio professionals. I'm starting out with some basic ideas, but I'll gradually be moving on to topics that are more advanced. New episodes will be posted weekly! If you have any questions or just want to get in touch, leave a comment below. You can also reach out to me via PM, Twitter, and my website. Thanks guys, and I'm curious to hear what all of you think!

Thanksgiving... more like Creativitygiving.

Sure.

I would LOVE to see a line play my stuff, but I can't see it happening. I also suck at remixing, so I can't really make a Latin version.

We sync the database with VGMdb's information, and if the artist isn't already in the database at the time (i.e. has an individual OC ReMix approved on the site), then they don't get matched to anyone in the database to appear on that page. When that happens, I have to manually add the information in, which I can do later. Desert Catz are just a group name for two artists with mixes on the site.

Different genres completely, it's not a fair comparison. I mean yeah it's a good game, but saying it's better than Undertale is completely subjective and based on your opinion. Therefore it shouldn't be presented as fact like it is in the topic title. Also you totally didn't mention a sequel was announced, and it coming to PC first followed by Nintendo stuff later and maybe others. I'd post the trailer but I'm too lazy to grab the link and it just reveals the basic storyline, no gameplay is shown at all.

Your case being you like making comparisons of apples and oranges to drive undue attention to something. Good to know. :T If anything you make a great point to not buy this game since you being the one pitching it to OCR resorts to such tactics.

I agree that it seems to lack body. I think this is because everything except the melody and drums are mixed so quietly. Like the guitars doing a rhythm under the melody - I didn't even really notice them at first. The song feels a bit empty throughout because of this, and lacks the energy I think it was supposed to have. The drums, (especially the drums,) and the solo violin feel like they're in completely different rooms than everything else, because they're mixed so differently, and the disconnect is jarring. Something you should also conciser - trumpet players need to breathe! 0:21 sounds very midi because of how samey each note is played, with no breaks at all in between.

I reviewed 190 remixes from the latest torrent, and around 10 which were released in December. I'll finish tomorrow morning ^^

None of it was recorded live. It was all sequenced within the DAW. Not sure about the body myself, though. It was intended to feel a bit empty at the beginning(and the reprisal at the end), and is overall a bit lightweight.

Thanks for the comments, everyone! We recorded this almost a full year ago (wow!), so we've already improved on a lot of what's being mentioned. It feels great to finally be contributing after following the site for so many years. I LOVE THIS ALBUM and I'd be lying if I said the encore didn't influence this track

Yeah, I'm not sure how you can follow a claim like "It's Better than Undertale" with "it's like Sonic and Sparkster at the same time" and not mention anything of its storytelling or atmosphere. Considering a large portion of Undertale's strength is its storytelling (and that through its game mechanics as well). I have to agree it is kind of clickbait.

The link doesn't work... It says the track can't be found or is deleted...

Thanks for the feedback guys! Appreciate it a lot! @DevilBeats I purposely made a lot of background sounds. I actually analysed the song entirely, by using various methods such as writing it down on sheet music, dynamic/flow analyses(a method I created for myself) and I actually also recorded it as original(to really know all the ins and outs of the song). Personally I like the full arrangement, but I can understand that it can be too much for others. So maybe i should try something else with it...I have a few Ideas... i'll see what i'll do and if I want to put more time in it.. @timeaus222 I'm also not that fond of the guitar, but i'm still practicing guitar, so I had to work with the midi. The lead was a tough one. I wanted something different than the usual guitar solo thingy, but I didn't want something soft, so I fiddled with audio effects. It's a little bit strange, bit you are definitely right about the lack of impact. That was something I haven't found out yet... I'm working on a second version of Trap Phantasm now, with physical instruments. I'm going to stick with the original, since I wasn't planning on changing it. I'll save that for some other time. I'll let you know when it's finished. And if I may ask upfront, will you guys also give me some feedback on that one. Would appreciate it a lot! If I can do anything in return, no problem!

1. Well, you could also listen to the ReMix for the musicality of it, without comparing to the original if you don't want to. 2. Because OCR hosts it in higher bitrate and at its original volume. And you can then bring it with you even when you don't have internet where you are.

Well, it's a pretty conservative arrangement; it sticks very closely to the original, pretty much verbatim actually. Also, phaser is easy to overdo, and I think the phaser is overdone on the lead; the saw lead at 0:29 lacks impact. The guitar is also pretty lifeless and noticeably... what, FL Slayer? Though you probably won't work on this more, I think you should work on the judicious usage of particular effects, and just bringing your own creativity into your arrangements. Try writing without using a MIDI, and imagine contributing to a more liberal arrangement.

The guitar is very good, the choppy bit at the beginning was kind of awkward, but once the song started it was ok. The guitar mixing was good, and I did like that you could hear the bass without any trouble, sometimes that is really hard to do because guitars are sometimes hard to mix. Maybe bring out a bit more high end though, the guitar arpeggios were very difficult to make out. The only really big problem is the drums, which are in serious need of EQ and compression. Boost the snares at around 250hz for more punch and between 4-8khz for more texture, also at 1-2khz for more fill. As to the kick, it is so quiet, I can barely hear that all. Before you do anything, you may just want to just pump up the volume first, but not too much, since you are doing metal a slightly (emphasis on slightly) quieter kick is pretty standard. Increase the low end at about 60-110hz, and maybe a tiny bit below that but not too much there, if you have any fast double kick patterns you will get a rather unpleasant sound with too much addition there. Boost around 500hz if you need a bit more fill, but not very much, you don't want to interfere with the low end of your guitar or your bass. And give it more at about 2-8khz for the 'click' sound that makes kicks sound so good. Maybe a bit more high end on the hi-hats, but those sounded ok so don't worry about that too much. I feel so bad telling you to boost everything, but remember, moderation is key, and once you do all of that, if you hear any frequencies that clash once the drums are louder, you will probably need to start cutting some frequencies. I feel bad because I normally don't say to boost so much stuff because it's bad practice to boost a lot of frequencies, but in this case there is really nothing else to do but that. If they start interfering with the guitar though, you may have boosted too much or it may be a different frequency that is interfering once it is louder. Overall, it was pretty good, it just needs louder drums. And remember, these aren't hard and fast rules, this is just my experience. Mixing is an art, and there is a lot of room to be creative with it.

I've been a Garpocalypse fan for a while, didn't even notice he was unposted until now. Knew this had to be amazing if it was better than his remixes that didn't get posted. Did not disappoint. Great work!

I can just see a DJ coming out to stage making a grand entrance at the very start of this track, and then saying into a mic “top this” right at the 0:29 mark. The percussion and bass work is outstanding. I want to dance to this, I want to jam to this, I want to rock out to this. The production here is……ahem…..top notch.

The arrangement is solid, actually; I enjoy the sections like 0:30 the most. But, the mix doesn't make me feel a lot of impact. It's quiet and a lot of the backing sounds kind of muddle together.

I finished writing review 200 on Word last night. Will PM you once they're all actually posted here

I sctually think the intro is really wintry. Great atmosphere, very dreamy. The guitar and choir sound fantastic. Just an excellent mix. Aurora borealis in the Arctic anyone?

Grats on the mixpost! This mix has a super relaxing, chill feel to it that actually suits the holiday season really well, sorta giving a sense of magic and warmth. The ocean waves were a little out of place in context of the season, but they fit really well with the mix itself. The guitar enters in a bit heavily, but after that it fit well, except for a couple rough transitions. Overall, this track felt consistently fresh and made the 4 minutes feel a lot shorter than they actually were

Holy moly, Gotta say, I listened to this a few times in the past couple of years. I guess beforehand, I never really just understood why it garnered so much attention but now, I come back to it after 5 times listening to it nonstop and I can really appreciate the scope of this masterpiece. This is a remix that will - forever - stand the test of time. As I go back and listen to the oldest remixes on the site, I have a feeling this will be like that for the next generation of ReMixers. Even idle listeners and those who spend their time in the community lurking in the shadows, will eventually end up at this amazingly imaginative piece and come to the realization just as I have: Video game music is the future's version of classical music. With this remix brought into the light, that understanding will become so clear, it'll be like looking through a wine glass. ...and with that, all words expended: I'm speechless.

Just my 2 cents on the why/why not for the reviews. (also not intended as a defeatist rant ) I understand as much as anyone that people put a lot of time and of themselves when committing to learning this art (not the midi-rippers which there seem to be more of now than ever but that's a different subject) and for that reason I've often favored not commenting in the forums out of consideration that my comments might not be taken as constructive by the remixer-to-be and I also know that there are a near infinite amount of ways to approach anything so the last thing I want the person who's work i'm commenting on is to think that I think my way is the only way. There is a lot of self discovery that's needed and if everyone followed one or two mixing engineers to the T (Tee? Ti?) then that would sacrifice any potential for something unique to come out of all that self discovery. Yet, I also am familiar with the environment where students and working professionals were nearly reduced to tears by their instructor/choir director/orchestra conductor/what-have-you because they might have played 2 notes that weren't stylistically correct or used an up-down-up bow pattern when the director wanted a down-down-up bow pattern. I was initially attracted to OCR because it got me away from that into a more stress free environment. Now, with all of this music out there, it's no longer a similar minded group of people who care enough about their art to want to help each other further what they have a mutual love for and instead it's a lot of people who all want praise for their work regardless of how it is and won't take any constructive criticism without getting defensive. Of course I don't feel that this is 100% of the community at all. But it's the reason I mostly just stick to the compos because the attitude of the people competing I find is much better than elsewhere on the forums. I would love it if people understood that to be any kind of an artist it means you have to build yourself up then expect to get torn down REPEATEDLY before your art takes on any worth and I think that people should be encouraged more to speak their minds on the forums here as long as it has a constructive purpose to make the remix better. To echo Brandon's statements about the panel. The length of time it takes for a person to get judged and posted is an issue that extends beyond the trickle of music that gets added to the site but to the social impact it has on the remixers and how the reviews they write are perceived. Once a posted remixer is able to have their work featured and even gain a few fans, suddenly their reviews take on a whole different meaning. Back in 2010 when I first started putting work up in the forums I jumped if someone I knew such as Brandon Strader, Willrock, Darkesword, Avaris, Gario or other posted remixers whose work I enjoyed took time to comment on mine. Even if the comments were harsh they were much easier to take because I was familiar with who they were beyond their name just showing up in the forums. Now we are at a time when most of the remixers from earlier days of OCR have all moved on or are significantly less active than they used to be and the steam that was there for the earlier remixers to get noticed (I believe WIllrock had 10 mixes judged and posted in 2010) is not available to the new up and coming remixers which makes it much more difficult for the community to produce it's own stars. I know the panel is to ensure that people who come by the site are guaranteed a listening experience that would take them hours of searching on Youtube to find but I think we are at the point where the panel is separating itself too much from the community it once created and it's having detrimental effects. Hopefully no one is misreading my intent with this unusually long winded post. The topic IS about the lack of interest in doing reviews which I hope people understand just how it stems from more than one issue. I've loved OCR since I chanced by it during the summer of 2005 and I don't think there is anything that could change that but if we could return the excitement of being a part of the VGRemixing scene to when it peaked between 2010 and 2012, when everything seemed to move a lot faster, than I would be all for that.

Something I'd like to point out here... Yeah, I'm DEF seeing some defeatism here, and while yes I 100% agree that people are busier, complaining about it isn't going to help the problem. My thought process and what it needs is as follows... When I joined, one thing I think people don't remember is that the WIP forum was in a similar state to how it is now. The odd comment but yeah... nothing huge happening. Enter ROZOVIAN - who pretty much single handedly managed to spark some motivation from others because he was so on the ball with wanting to help people. Eventually, the WIP forum had a load of other people critting along with him, and he basically spearheaded a few good years of WIP feedback. He wasn't a mod, he wasn't a judge, he didn't even have a posted mix, but you know, that stuff doesn't matter - all it takes is ONE person to put in the effort and others will follow. Its not me, i'm too busy with other stuff, but this whole "OCR is dead" mentality is probably contributing to this current situation, because "why bother flogging a dead horse", which is what i'm fearing a lot of people are thinking based on some of these responses. All it takes is one person to start doing some reviews and it might kick things up a gear.

I think it's a couple of things for me. For starters, like most of us here already said, I have much less time than a few years ago. When I look at the active people at the forums (not calling myself that, because I hardly contribute at the forums), I have a feeling that the average age is higher than when I first joined these forums. Something which could easily be caused by a decline in new members and thus the old members growing up, but in these age categories, people have jobs and families. I can't miss five hours a day to check all of the new mixes and give reviews. I used to do that - I at least used to listen to all of the mixes on the front page, but I don't even do that anymore. Another thing is YouTube and Facebook. Because new mixes are popping up in my Facebook/YouTube feeds, I listen to the ones from there. That means I never visit the OCR homepage anymore and I don't see djp's write-up or come in contact with the review thread. And the drive to write a review gets higher when you see other reviews - this is nto the case now. If I like something, I just hit the 'like' button on YouTube/Facebook and write a short sentence - even though I know how great it is to get a full review by other OCR'ers. I'm not really sure how to fix that though... perhaps copy the write-up to YouTube as the first comment? It could be that people are more likely to write a more extensive comment

Cool, funky mix with a bit of a Latin flair! I love the brass and guitar work. The low end (kick and bass both) feels a little heavy and out of control, bordering on boomy, it's definitely taking up a lot of frequency space. When the glitch hop drops at 1:11, the snare is too loud and just a bit on the mid-heavy, boxy side, it obscures a lot of the wonderful details. Transition at 1:47 is very abrupt. The kick is exposed during the transitions and breakdown and I think the kick is too heavy in the lows. The structure of this track is basically ABABA, where the As are nearly the same (with the exception of some variance in the writing near the end of the second iteration, and the third iteration turns into an outro) and the Bs are super similar too (with the exception of more ear candy and sound bites added in the second iteration). The two transitions between both A and B sections are the same. The breakdown at 1:47 is the most unique with some noodling going on. I love the glitch sections, clearly a lot of time and effort went into them. The track does end up sounding repetitive with this structure, though. I'm going to see how others vote on this. edit 8/28/15: Listening again. I still find this structure repetitive, but the ideas are creative and very well executed and it's a fun listen. YES