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There's something else entirely that's actually holding you back, but it's bad form to say it in public. Here's an attached image that uses facts and simple experimentation to blast your claim. As you can see, it has loaded 7.6GB of samples (more than your computer can actually hold) from resource-intensive library METROPOLIS ARK 1, playing a thick voicing of Cmaj7#11 sent to all 12 ensembles that totals around 228 voices. Also, this is Kontakt DFD, which only stores sample attacks in memory. When notes are played, actual full samples are called directly from disk (DFD). That places strain and load on my disk path, so I got an SSD (what Flex said earlier) to make that not an issue. My CPU usage sits at 16%. All 8 threads are being used just fine because I enabled multi threaded processing, on an i7 that predates your i5. Assuming losing hyperthreading means the usage per core doubles (that's not actually how computers work, by the way), that's still 36% for a big RAM heavy sample project in FL Studio. No pops, no clicks. So to answer your question: "good DAW that can take advantage of modern computers?" Try FL Studio. It's pretty cool, lots of people use it. Handles big samples and multi-core processors really well. Decent learning curve, lot of remixers and professionals use it.

That's actually not how software and computers work. EVER. If something doesn't work, there is ALWAYS a reason, 100% of the time, whether it's bad configuration, a hardware problem, a software problem, or a user problem. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE for stuff to randomly 'stop working' with no cause. Physics, computer hardware, software, they simply do not and CAN NOT work that way. I'm a few months away from the 10-year mark as a full-time software developer, and have had interactions with customers in every position I've had, and you're exhibiting the behaviours of the most difficult customers I've had to deal with. The whole "It doesn't work and I want to have others listen to me whine about it" approach is a good way to annoy people and a terrible way to solve problems. You've been given a lot of suggestions in this thread and have provided little to no indication that you've even considered any of them, let alone tried them out. If you want help from intelligent people, you need to ask intelligent questions and you need to follow through on what they say, otherwise you're wasting everyone's time. If you're serious about finding a solution to your problem, please go through this thread again, top to bottom. The answer is probably in here already, or in the video that someone linked. Watch that video, and do EVERYTHING it says. Chances are VERY GOOD that it will solve your problem. If you have questions or don't understand things, google it or ask specific followup questions. There's more than enough knowledge in this thread to help you get the performance you should out of your setup. The one thing I can pretty much guarantee is that switching DAWs is going to do very little for you besides be a good way for you to throw away money. Your performance issues are from your configuration in some way, NOT simply from the fact that you use FL Studio. (If you don't want to believe the ton of evidence in this thread, then don't, but that attitude is one I would call stupid, given by someone who doesn't deserve help). By all means spend money on Cubase. A new program isn't going to solve your defeatist attitude, and it isn't going to fix any issues with how your system is configured. It may have better multi-processor options turned on by default, but no DAW is going to get rid of all configuration issues forever. What happens when you try to get a larger Kontakt sample library? Or add new plugins? Or upgrade your hardware? You don't seem like much of a reader, but on the off-chance that you actually care about getting better, you should read this. David Sirlin is a game designer with a lot of titles under his belt. While the eBook (available in full for free on his website) uses examples from Street Fighter and other fighting games, his ideas apply to other games and to other parts of life, especially the stuff about being serious about wanting to win, not having a defeatist attitude (what he calls a 'scrub'), and so on. I hope you listen to the advice you've gotten in this thread, about your software setup and about your attitude. Maybe you'll make some changes to both and accomplish some cool things! But I agree with Flexstyle; don't come here, or anywhere, and waste people's time asking for advice and ignoring it.

As a professional musician, I can let you know that I don't ask for a composer/arranger's transcript before I employ their services. I only care that they can write for my group. As a teacher, I can let you know that grades are an indication of someone's understanding of content taught by the instructor. AKA - poor academic performance is supposed to be synonymous with a lack of knowledge after the class is over. For professional composers, the real thing that matters is your portfolio/catalog and your influences, so I would say the content side is more important than the grades side. Grades get you into school, though. I know that if you make a C or lower in some classes at the undergraduate level, it is basically a failing grade - you have to retake the course often with the same professor. This can be a death sentence. It makes some undergrads change their major, or worse, eternal students. All that aside, the most important things to have as a music major is a rock star private lessons teacher on your primary instrument, the relationships you form at the university level, and opportunities to have your stuff heard. If your stuff doesn't get performed, what good are you as a composer? If people want to play and hear your stuff, you are set. You can make a decent living if you are self-published and are business-minded. But then, how are you going to pay for insurance and everything? Having benefits with an employer can go a long way towards both your health, retirement, and general mental sanity. TLDR: Just get a great theory/composition teacher and get your music played. Before the first project is over start the next. Freelance = no down time.

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.

hi!! here's a metal arrangement of "The Rival" from Shovel Knight. I'd like to do a full Shovel Knight album. let me know what you think please!!! EDIT: here's the new version. I still need to tweak a few things, but I'd say it's like ~90% done.

The funny thing about music is that everyone approaches it differently. A lot of people in the music industry don't really have the koalafications for writing music, and yet they still make money with it. Other people actually have a lot of knowledge about their field, but they don't manage to make enough money to feed themselves. You say you have all the tools to compose, but I personally find that a bit of an odd thing to say. All you need to compose is your mind. And if you also want to pass it along to other people you might need a pencil and some paper as well. In the current time and age that could also mean you've got sibelius, or finale or an account on Noteflight. But, in the current time and age it could also mean you've got a recording device and a piano, and you're composing your own piano compositions. It could also mean you've downloaded fruity loops, and are making some beats. Or maybe you bought a guitar and are now singing your own songs at the local pub every Friday night. Naturally ,it could also be something entirely else... Now, to come back to your original question, it greatly depends on the kind of music you want to compose. If you want to compose orchestral pieces, and have them played by real orchestra's, then I'd definitely say that grades matter. Because having a teacher who has experience with such things is crucial to such a complicated and time-consuming project. Schools that teach such things also have the connections and facilities to have your yet to be made orchestral pieces played, which is, as mentioned before, a must for starting composers. On the other hand, if you make your orchestral pieces yourself, in some kind of Daw and a midi keyboard, then you don't really need to have your pieces played, as you kind of play them yourself. It's the same with self played piano pieces, sing and songwriter love songs and generally everything that doesn't require other people to get the sound you want. But... it's quite complicated to determine if you need to follow some kind of education in order to make such music. Besides music being a very subjective and personal thing, it is still somewhat possible to see if music is 'good' or not. Some people do not have any education in music, and yet produce some very cool stuff. Other people do not have any education in music, and produce some very uncool stuff. It depends on the person. And, as I mentioned earlier, your music doesn't have to be 'good' in order to make money out of it. Something however which is kind of certain, is that, if you follow an education in music, it really improves your music. So, if you're not sure if you're a musical genius, and you want to make 'good' music, then I'd say that grades matter. Because that allows you to follow an education in music. Which doesn't immediately mean that you have to compose orchestral pieces. There are lots of music educations focused on electronic music, pop music, rock music and other such things. If you're already confident that the music you're composing is sure to sell well, and you know how get it to the general public, then you don't really need a teacher or a certificate or anything else school related. But, even then there is a difference between thinking that you're making 'good' music and actually making 'good' music. And the people who can tell the difference between those two things and help you in crossing that bridge are music teachers, working at conservatories and music schools.

Holy crap as soon as that first chord hit I was hooked. Gosh dang this has an amazingly smooth sound. Love it!

Somebody claim Crystal Cave. That's a great source.

Yeeeeeeaaaaah This is sounding epic! I too can't wait for the bass. I'd say currently the lead guitar is a smidge quiet but...is that...is that vibrato I hear in your playing? Thank god. Not going to lie, usually when I see "metal" as the genre for the remix, I usually expect the lead guitars to sound like a swarm of mosquitoes. HURRY AND FINISH THIS DAMN IT. There are dragons in need of slaying! Also, another Canadian! Awesome

I Should mention that I'm available for collabing as well....Piano, Rhodes, Drums, Vibraphone, Marimba, Melodica, Congas.....hit me up!

Sick playing, man. Once you get the bass in there it should be a damn solid arrangement. Welcome to the WIP boards, by the way, here's hoping to hear more from you! Moar Shovel Knight would be perfect

You'll be missed Gar. I'll be in touch after

Grades show that you can follow directions and please other peoples' arbitrary standards of what your art/design should end up like. So they don't actually matter from a standpoint of resume-style evaluation, but learning how to please instructors is good practice for learning how to please clients, and far easier because when you argue with an instructor they'll know what the hell you're talking about. So it's not important to show other people how good your grades are, but it is important to be able to get them. A common rationalization of slacking grades is it's for stuff you don't like, and doing stuff you like will turn out better. It's a rare case where your work doing what you love will only ever be doing it for things you like. Professionally speaking, you're going to end up working on some crappy stuff time to time, or working for crappy people. Learn to put up with it and excel despite it now -- this is coming from experience. Another important thing to note is that grades at the right school under the right instructors ensure you're actually learning industry standard skills. Again, clients don't care, but you should. You're not gonna find those skills outside of learning them from people. tl;dr learning how to earn good grades is good practice for learning how to deal with other peoples' standards they set for you

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day, than with BadButt 3: The Album!

This is the video game music remixing forum. Here you can get feedback on your remixes, and provide the same for others. Whether or not your remix is intended to be submitted to OC ReMix, you can post it here. Threads One thread per remix, one remix per thread. Exception: albums, see below. Don't make a new thread just for an update. We're okay with a new thread for a remix you're picking up again after many years since last update. If you can't find the old thread with search or other means, you can make a new thread. Don't post too many threads at once. It feels like spam, which might make listeners ignore you. Set the title of your thread with the name of the game. Information such as the song(s) remixed or the genre might also be of interest to listeners. Use a thread prefix to let listeners know what state your remix is in. Use thread tags to make your work easier to find based on keywords. If you're asking for general feedback on your music making, you may include several remixes in a thread (please include this in the thread title), but we recommend focusing on a single track at a time. Albums are an exception, of course. When your remix is finished, and you want to submit it to OC ReMix, follow these instructions. You may also request an evaluation (previously "mod review") before submitting. Releases Individual tracks, music videos, and albums of video game remixes can be released here. Albums You can release your VGM remix albums here. The one-track-per-thread/one-thread-per-track policy obviously doesn't apply to albums. If you're looking to submit an album to OC ReMix, read the relevant parts of the Project Guidelines and the Project Guide, or contact one of the Project Evaluators. If you're already a posted OC ReMixer, or in the To Be Posted-queue, you can post in Community to promote albums you're involved in. That includes VGM, remix albums, and original music. Hosting Some online hosting services offer streamed playback of the audio uploaded. The problem is that these sometimes compress the sound quality, which might make the music sound worse than is actually in the file, and might mask some problems in the mix. Instead, use a hosting service or web space that doesn't do this. Some of them have a streaming option. There are many free services for hosting your remixes, whether finished or works in progress. These are a few that we like. Tindeck | Box | Dropbox | Google Drive | Soundcloud* * Uses stream compression, but it's a music hosting site, and some users find the ability to timestamp comments useful. Feedback When posting a remix, consider if there's something in particular you want feedback on, and feel free to mention that in the post. You might also want to mention any particular purpose of the remix, such as whether you're looking to submit it to the site or not. Just like you want feedback on your remix, other people want feedback on theirs. Let them know what you thought of their remix, what they did well, what they could improve on, and they might return the favor. You can also get feedback by asking people on the OC ReMix works-in-progress irc channel: #ocrwip at irc.esper.net. You can also just ask remixers, judges, workshop mods, and others by sending them a PM or contacting them by other means. Most people on the site are cool and approachable. We're all game music nerds anyway, aren't we? Getting feedback The Checklist A feedback checklist was developed to cover common problems in remixes submitted to OC ReMix. Feel free to use this to enhance your feedback to others, or to critically listen to your own track. Check (typically with an X) the boxes that apply. Then delete the lines that don't apply, so it's easier to read. Guides to remixing Tutorials category | zircon's guide to getting started | Rozovian's remixing guide Workshop Discussion

When you're ready to submit a remix to OC ReMix, but you're not sure if the remix fits the site's submission standards: Add a link to the source (the original track(s) which was/were remixed) in the same post as the most recent update of the remix. YouTube is a good resource for sources. Change the prefix on the first post to Ready for Review. If you have any questions or special concerns, feel free to include them in the post as well. Post a new post in your thread so it's near the top of the board. This is important if you're changing the tags of a thread that's already a few weeks old; less so if the thread is already near the top of the board. Wait a week or two. If you don't get a response from an Evaluator by then, PM one or two of them. They're supposed to review your track within a few days. Sometimes it just takes a little longer. When you've received an evaluation, the Evaluator will either mark your thread as Work-in-Progress, indicating you need to keep working on it, or Complete, indicating that they think it's ready to submit. Keep in mind: Don't use Ready for Review for remixes not intended to be submitted to OC ReMix. Don't use Ready for Review for remixes that you don't think are ready to be submitted. Don't use Ready for Review just because you've received no other feedback on your remix. Don't use Ready for Review on the same remix over and over again. The evaluation team is not a substitute for regular listeners and your own critical listening. Don't use Ready for Review on albums. There's a different process for releasing official OC ReMix albums. Read more here. The Evaluators are not judges. They're selected because their grasp of the submission standards is good enough to be an indicator of what the judges might say. They can still be wrong, and the judges aren't always unanimous either. A positive evaluation is not a guarantee of passing the judges' panel, nor is a negative evaluation a guarantee that the remix won't pass the panel. Don't make any changes to the track while waiting for the evaluation. Evaluators want to listen to the version you think is ready for submission. If you have things to change, do it before asking for the evaluation, or possibly after the evaluation is made. It's okay for other people to comment on/review a track marked for evaluation. Ready for Review just means that an Evaluator will also come and review it, not that they're the only ones who may. Remixes that are Ready for Review Workshop Discussion

Meet the Evaluation Team! The purpose of this thread is to give any would-be workshop denizen the ability to best utilize the staff here. In other words, here's what you need to know about each one of us! Each of us are here to help you grow as a musician and (hopefully) into a posted ReMixer. However, not all of us operate the same way, and we each have different backgrounds. Some of us are in different time zones, and we all have projects, lives, family, and music of our own to attend to. Nonetheless, the reason we're Evaluators is because we each have a passion for helping others improve. Gario (Judge, not active) Real name: Gregory Nourse Location: Wilmington, California, USA Occupation: Electrical Engineer Preferred method of contact: Discord , PM Also reachable by: Discord, FB Five OSTs I recommend: Dragonseed, Megaman Soccer, Final Fantasy 8, Utopia (SNES), Saga 2/3 (Final Fantasy Legends, in USA) About me: I have my degree in Music Theory and Composition from UNM (back in 2008... hard to believe it's been that long already), and as such I've actually had a lot of experience listening to all sorts of styles of music (both tonal and atonal). As such, one area I'm particularly keen on is arrangement, voice leading and orchestration of the track. As of 2008 I've done a lot of work on my own learning the ins and outs of production, so I can give some solid advice on that front, as well. I'd like to be as diligent as possible on these boards, though unfortunately I've only had time to browse them actively once a week, roughly. If you send out a PM I'd be happy to direct some Mod Review justice your way, though - a friendly request often serves you well! Rozovian (Not active; on vacation from evals) Real name: Ad G Location: Finland Occupation: Please give me a job. I'm going crazy in this stupid economy. Preferred method of contact: PM Also reachable by: email Five OSTs I recommend: Seiken Densetsu 3, Halo 3 ODST, Super Metroid, Mirror's Edge, Battletoads & Double Dragon About me: I complain about the compression in your mix, and I have a beard. I also wrote a remixing guide. Wiesty Real name: Dylan Wiest Location: Canada Occupation: Music educator, musician Preferred method of contact: PM Also reachable by: Discord Five OSTs I recommend: Chrono Trigger (duh), Donkey Kong Country 2, Final Fantasy 7, Lost Odyssey, Link to the Past About me: I'm a long time member of OcRemix but have just recently joined the staff here! I coordinate the OC Jazz Collective who recently put out their premiere album entitled "Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger". During the day I'm a band teacher and gigging musician. My instruments of choice include percussion and piano. -- ambient (yes, with a small "a") (Not active) Real name: Alex Gventsadze Location: Georgia Occupation: Professional Services Preferred method of contact: PM Also reachable by: TBD Five OSTs I recommend: Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2. About me: Far from a professional musician (though I have a bit of a background in classical piano and upright bass), my involvement in any kind of creative process associated with music is limited to what I do on OCR. I mainly focus on electronic music and could offer only limited input when it comes to other musical styles. I've been a part of the OCR community since the early 2000s. Argle (Not active) Real name: Adam Kirby Location: Tinley Park, IL, USA Occupation: Programmer analyst Preferred method of contact: PM Five OSTs I recommend: Chrono Trigger , King's Bounty: the Legend, Rayman, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Super Mario Galaxy About me: just a dude who likes to make teh remixes. Been at the music thing for over a decade. I play violin and guitar but I consider that secondary to composing computer-based music. I try to write in a variety of genres to prevent myself from getting bored, and would like to think I can give feedback on pretty much any genre. Look forward to helping people out! WillRock (Judge)(Not active) Real name: William Harby Location: UK Occupation: Composer Preferred method of contact: Skype (WillRock07), PM, Facebook Also reachable by: AIM, IRC Five OSTs I recommend: iunno About me: Dunno. You guys can look me up here. Also work as a composer for edgebee studios. Got a degree in music tech. Etc. Reason i'm posting here is because I don't frequent the boards, and i'm technically still a WS Mod. but I DO like to look and help out people with their tracks, particularly if they come to me in person. Its better to send me a direct message (AIM/IRC/Skype) rather than PM because otherwise I may think "i'll look later" and not get around to it, but contact me and i'll more than happily help out anyone who needs it. I wouldn't class myself as particularly great with a specific area of critique but i'm a good all rounder and can probably give a decent idea if something will pass the panel or not. Hit me up on Skype! XPRTNovice Real name: Joseph Zieja Location: Northern Virginia (changes almost yearly) Occupation: Voiceover Artist Preferred method of contact: OCR PM at the moment Also reachable by: Skype, mIRC sometimes, pigeon OSTs I recommend: Xenogears, Persona 3 About Me: Relatively new to OCR (joined January 2012), but I've been a musician for over 20 years. My highlight seems to be the amount of instruments I play (at widely varying different skill levels of course), which include 4 saxophones, clarinet, guitar, mandolin, trumpet, french horn, flute, piano, and oud. I'm also a voiceover artist and fantasy/science fiction author on the side (hopefully some good news about my books coming in 2014). I'm glad to be a part of the OCR community and now I'm thrilled to be a part of the staff as well. I look forward to growing with you all. timaeus222 Real name: Truong-Son Nguyen Location: Washington, USA Occupation: Physical Chemistry PhD Student (til 2021), Chemistry Teaching Assistant Preferred method of contact: OCR PM (timaeus222), or Discord (timaeus222) Also reachable by: Skype (timaeus222), Twitter (@timaeus222), Facebook (timaeusonocr) OSTs I recommend: Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, Mega Man Star Force series, Gunstar Heroes, Super Mario Galaxy About Me: I'm a lover of music, chemistry, and math. I've played piano for about 8 years, and taken choir classes for about 6. I got my BS degree in Chemistry, and I enjoy helping students online (socratic.org) and at my university with science/math questions. I also sometimes make gameplay youtube videos (nowadays, iOS and GBA games). I specialize in sound design for dubstep, drum & bass, and EDM, although I am comfortable and open to writing in and giving feedback for many genres, ranging from orchestral, to atmospheric, to metal and dubstep. OCR has always been a welcoming community, and arguably they have been a large part in helping me grow into the person I am now---I'll definitely enjoy helping out around here! Geoffrey Taucer (Not active) Real name: Jeremy Waters Location: Maryland, USA Occupation: Preferred method of contact: PM Also reachable by: Discord OSTs I recommend: Trolls for MS DOS About Me: Remixer and community member since roughly 2004. Self-taught musician, specializing in folk music and (to a lesser extent) rock. I play guitar, banjo, keyboard, irish whistle, and bouzouki. Hemophiliac Real name: Chris Roman Location: Fontana, CA, USA Occupation: Future Medical Coder Preferred method of contact: Discord (Hemophiliac#6361) Join the OCR Discord server and tag me! We have a #workshop section there, and I can help in real time! Also reachable by: OCR PM, Twitter (@onehemophiliac) OSTs I recommend: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 7, Saga Frontier, Everything by Yoko Shimomura, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. About Me: Been writing and arranging music for about 20 years now, also have a music degree. Classically trained in voice and prefer to sing in groups (because blending and vocal harmony!) Have some basic keyboard skills. Really big on contrasts in music.

I see no problem with people releasing different albums for the same game. More music is always a good thing to me. I'll definitely check out that other album too.

Excellent remix! Love the meters, love the improve, the rhodes was a great touch AND it stayed interesting the entire time.

I'm lookin' mighty fresh for MAGProm.

Subterrania was this amazing objective based gravity-is-a-thing spaceship shooter, never played anything else like it. It was like a 2d Jungle Strike set in space that didn't suck. Then there was Crusader of Centy, which played something like a cross between a single character Final Fantasy, Metroid, and Streets of Rage. Gaiaraes was a kickass R-Type styled game where you could steal weapons from enemy ships. This game was long for a shmup too, and had the usual trippy level design complete with black holes and giant animals/people. Gain Ground was... Interesting. You got different characters with different weapons and the goal was to either eliminate all enemies on each screen or somehow get all your characters to the exit on each level. Infuriatingly difficult at times. General Chaos was also a tactical sorta-isometric game but you controlled a whole squad at once in a sort of turn based combat. Mega Turrican was a really long and artistically amazing sidescrolling platformer that was kinda like Ecco in hitting on some surreal/disturbing story tones told through level design. Ranger-X was another sidescrolling shooter but with the interesting twist that you controlled two different mechs simultaneously, which could interact with each other. The levels were generally somewhat non-linear and objective based. Robocop vs The Terminator was on the surface a plain old sidescrolling platformer/shooter, but there were a ridiculous number of weapons and once you uncensored the game with a cheat code things got a little crazy with blood and stripperrific outfits. Shinobi 3 is probably one of my favorite Genesis games, right up there with Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The art and music are great, the storyline conveyed surprisingly well through level design alone, and the gameplay is top notch. Imho it's one of those games that shows just how much a competent team can get out of the Genesis.

I've been listening to this piece for years. It brings a nice soothing feel with some sadness, as if dark clouds are appearing. Outro from 2 is pleasant.

Well, I guess, but it's gonna be a weird departure from our smooth jazz standard.

gimme silence and motion or compression of time or both

give me "the castle" thank you

First things first, the vocals sounded heavenly. The vibrato kind of makes it hard to hear at some points, that's minor to me. This has an easy, haunting and "elegance in darkness" kind of feels to it, and it really did the trick. Nice work.

First I'll repost what I wrote for the album thread: There have been some comments that the last "my child" line should have more stuff going on in it. I feel quite the reverse, the power of the vocal is in that it is so understated and is not overselling itself at any point. The emotion comes across the best that way, I think. I still feel that the arrangement is overpowering the vocals towards the end, around 1:30-1:55 or so. It sounds a bit busy perhaps, though I find it hard to be more precise than that. It might be a mixing issue with the levels or frequencies or stereo separation too. The vocals have some timing issues here and there too, which contributes to the slightly cluttered feeling. Overall though, this is a wonderfully serene, and really, really sad song. I enjoy it very much. The vocals are powerful and clear and emotive, the writing is overall good, the piece sounds good and everything overall comes together in a really nice way, and also in a way unique to OCR ReMixes so far, as far as I can tell. --Eino

The word that comes to my mind on this one is "Gothic". It has these very dark, haunting overtones that really cause one to pause and just dwell on life for a while. Everything is executed just so perfectly here. Abadoss described this as a lullaby that a mother might knowingly sing to her child who might not survive the night, and its the fact that even if he hadn't told that, it still would have been clear that would have been the vibe that they were going for. The fact that this is so rooted in those notions that it accomplishes what it sets out to do is what makes this so awe worthy in my opinion. If what I just said made any sense ._. Everything here though just works together so well, especially DA's vocals and the slow methodological orchestration. Definitely an amazing song.

I can really feel the sadness in this, it's almost making me tear up. So much so that it's kind of hard to say I like it. Incredibly emotional to say the least.

I love this mix and the vocals are just awesome.

Something is lacking with the piano, not sure what though, just doesnt sound... Meaty enough? lol But all in all I love this remix so much. Very peaceful. and one of my faves on the site! Going to have a look and see what else he has done.

Hey, really killer work on all fronts I've loved Abadoss's collabs ever since I heard him on FFIV, and this just shows how much potential he has to branch out and do something completely new and different with every song. The orchestration and vocals have their flaws, but in the end it's nothing that makes a serious dent in my overall enjoyment. The lyrics are incredibly touching once you know the story they are trying to portray. This was a surprise for me when I heard it on Xenogears, you guys all really rose to the challenge on this one!

So reading the writeup, this song makes a lot more sense. I agree with what others have said about the last note, but that has been addressed so I won't go there. One thing I felt though is that the backing to DA's vocals is a bit too loud and drowns out the vocals a bit. The second half of the song is excellent in contrasting a touch of sadness to the first half, and I feel that's where this song really shines (that being the second half), as the main part with the source is used in a more uplifting manner than the original. Great job trio!

DA's vocals are solid in this. It's such a sweet and sensitive remix. Great for letting your mind drift off into dreamland.

This was an awesome surprise near the end of the project. Def DA's best vocal performance. Despite being extremely short I think the song has a lot to offer. After listening to it for the first time I thought it was ~4mins. Says something about the writing and production on this mix.

Agreed with Dave/Andrew/DA on that last held vocal note having some unexploited potential. That and the way the string decayed at the finish were probably the only two crits even worth making. As I told Kenneth at MAGFest, I absolutely loved this track, hence the DP. I liked the deliberate pacing and mood in this one. If you read the lyrics, they definitely gets the eyes CLOSE to tearing up. (I held my composure, I'm gonna cry. But I could see how someone else would. ) I really liked listening to it when I first heard it when tagging Humans + Gears, but it wasn't until reading Kenneth backstory on the imagery that the gravity of the arrangement really hit me. Very powerful lyrics, nothing but enhanced by Deia's vocal performance, which was both sad and stunning. Justin really polished this up nicely. Also, props to Kenneth for incorporating the source theme on some level at practically every point of the song. When I realized it was going on in the background during several portions of the arrangement, I was definitely impressed at how thorough and sophisticated the overall treatment of the theme was. Great job, guys!

That was probably my one regret in singing this that I couldn't get a good tone quality, intonation, and vibrato out of those long (and one VERY long) held notes. Vibrato's always been a weakspot for me, since I tend to be very tense...all the time actually, but it's been improving slowly. I have to say that I was very impressed with how Kenneth worked the original into a 3 minute piece. It certainly takes quite a bit of skill to expand so much on the source while still staying interesting. I also have to say that Nutritious really brought this track to life. Listening to the original finale version and the finished version, the sounds and emotion are so different that it really brings out the emotion. It was great working with these guys, and I hope I can again soon!

Great stuff, A very good arrangement, by Kennith, though near the end, I don't think the repeated phrasing of the "my child" line was as elegant as it could have been. Otherwise, great work turning a shorter source into a cohesive track. Justin does his thing here, and everything sounds nice. The only thing holding this guy back from some hugely epic emotive sequencing are his samples. They get the job done nicely, but I think that's what's holding him back now- his chops are certainly up to the task. Deia is really the star of this track, and no offense to some or her earlier work, but it's like 2 different singers. I honestly didn't know she had it in her, and this is easily her best vocal performance yet, though it definitely won't be her best ever. Keep on pwning, shawty.

I definitely like the quieter sections where there's just one instrument taking center stage... it sounds almost too cheesy when the full orchestra comes in. Still, I appreciate the arrangement and, while they're not the best, I don't think the sample quality inhibited my enjoyment much, if at all. That being said, I'm also glad that Abadoss has taken advantage of the various collaboration opportunities for projects lately... when his stellar arrangements meet live music/professional-sounding samples, that's when his music really shines and you realize just how talented of an arranger he is!

This came up on random on itunes, so I'm going to take advantage of it to write a review here. Overall Abadoss is a master at classical writing, which is always a nice listen. I've loved hearing your arrangements, and I look forward to hearing what you can cook up next. The original is definately there, but it's also your own, which really is what I enjoy about your works. Beating a dead horse here (11PM and I can be clever?), but the sample quality is your downfall. I'm glad you've collaborated a lot more lately to make some really nice sounding pieces, because it's a shame that these pieces can't realize their full potential. Nice work though, keep arranging awesome stuff!

I'm new to the forums, but have listened to OCRemixes since I first got a computer, and this is a favorite already! A little short, but the arrangement is great, and I like how it /isn't/ Gerudo Valley! Even though the sampling is clearly visible (audible?) here, it doesn't take away anything for me. Thanks, Abadoss!

Epona's song was always one of my least favorite songs in the game. However,　I like your arrangement very much. Thank you for your efforts in making　it, it is and will go on being enjoyed.

I love this mix. It's nice to see some of the parts that we're (in my opinion) not as great as they could be, being orchestrated. I love this not only because it is something finally not Gerudo, but it really is altogether a great piece that made my day.

Nice arrangement, although the sample usage and partwriting in the first half put a big dent in the execution for me. Also a little on the short side. Still, it's good to see more Zelda64 coverage that isn't Gerudo Valley.

This is a nice, charming piece. There's no critcism I could offer that hasn't already, so I'll offer praise. I really enjoy listening to this and always felt the source material had potential, which you have tapped masterfully. It also stands unique among many of the OCR songs I've heard in the past, bringing something sort've new to the table. This is one I'll be listening to often for a long time to come and is already one of my favorites. Great job, I hope to see you do much, much more work of this skill and quality.

It's exactly as the judges said. It has a profoundly classy- western feel to it. I also think that its definately earning of the title "rearangement" , because it's oh so very original, yet very reminiscant of the source material. Awesome job Abados .

Overall very well done, with some very nice ideas, I especially like how you kept hinting harmonically at some of the original, and then going in a different direction, it really kept surprising me,and in a good way. Some of the samples seemed too exposed, mostly the solo instruments, and though the piano was a bit rigid, it didn't detract in any way to me. Very nice work.

Wow. This is pretty good, can't really say of what seeing as how i'm not very good at explaining, but I did come out of 2 or so years worth of inactivity just to tell you good job. You just can't do that everyday ya'know Keep on keepin on. This is good stuff!

Section starting at 1:15 is my favorite part of the song (so far; it's not even done downloading). The textures Abadoss pulls off here are very pleasing to the ear and mind. And let this be a lesson to all those who quit after the first or second set of NOs from the judges. This is a stunning example of how persistence pays off.