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DaMonz, Sir_NutS, and Gario! We also have a NEW Workshop evaluator, Amphibious, giving WIP feedback & advice! As I like to say, welcome them aboard, and/or express your anger and skepticism!

Actually they have been already working pretty hard and the queue has made a good leap, you'll see when the progress thread is updated (soon!).

I hate them already!

I can't say it's Christmas in July, but it is Christmas in March!! I apologize for the hold up, but I wanted to kick this thread into gear as early as I could this year, because this is the tenth anniversary of An OverClocked Christmas we're talking about. That's right, Volume 10!! Who's directing this ship this year? Well, in the last two years (volumes 8 and 9), The Coop has stepped up and stepped into the role of director, while I, for personal reasons that I won't get into here, stepped back to take a breather. Two years is a long time, but this year is special, and I couldn't stand staying away for it. So this year, I'm happy to announce that... Both The Coop, and myself (Dyne), will be directing this project. So, what's this year's theme going to be, or, what music should we be making for this project? As always, Christmasy, snowy, seasonal music is the goal, but this year, I'm asking everyone to stick to Video Game Music specifically. That means that we're not taking original music, or remixes/rearrangements of classic Christmas tunes. I will explain why this is the running theme for the year. In previous years, we've had a mix of all manner of music, from VGM, to classic Christmas music, to originals. For this year, I wanted to focus primarily on VGM has a whole, especially because of this community here at OCR. I love this community, and though I've been lurking for a long time now, I still think of this community as an extended family. So, with that in mind, let's brighten the year with amazing music!! The other reason for this focus is actually a project that has yet to be started. One that I won't be talking about, but one that is something I want to accomplish for Christmas 2017. So keep an eye out for that. What format should our tracks be in? Typically, we've accepted them as MP3s and WAVs before. We're going to do this again. The following is the format that I would like followed: 44.1 Khz, 192kbps .MP3 Who do we submit our music to? Well, to be honest, either one of us. But more specifically, I'd like to have them sent to me through my gmail account. That said, I have some guidelines for how you can send me those emails, and what I need to see so I can locate them in my email. First, my Gmail address is, as always, Dyne2057@gmail.com. Secondly, in the SUBJECT line, I'd like the following in all caps: RE: AOCC VOLUME 10 SUBMISSION Thirdly, in the body of the email message, I'd like the following: YOUR REMIXER HANDLE (what you use on OCR is fine), THE OFFICIAL TITLE OF YOUR TRACK, THE SOURCE OF THE TRACK (what game is it from? who is the composer?), ANY COMMENTS YOU WISH TO MAKE ABOUT YOUR TRACK (or tracks if you are making multiple submissions). Should we send multiple tracks in one email? The short answer is NO. The long answer is, I would like tracks in separate emails. I know this is tedious, but it will help me keep track of what information belongs to each of your tracks. What should we do if we can't send you tracks via email? If you can't send them via email, I will accept links to DropBox, web space (if that's where you can put it), or whatever method you'd like to use to get them to me. I would still like the requisite information from the email along with the link. If you are doing multiple tracks, then you can send multiple links this way. I know, this is a bit backwards from what I said about sending email to me in one of the sections above, but please hear me out. If you're sending links, you can more easily divide up your track, so what it should look like is like the following: --- <DOWNLOAD LINK FOR YOUR TRACK> --- REMIXER HANDLE --- OFFICIAL TITLE OF YOUR TRACK --- SOURCE OF YOUR TRACK --- COMMENTS ABOUT YOUR TRACK And then just repeat for as many submissions as you have. The download link will act as a divider. And remember that your SUBJECT should also be the same as above. WIP Deadlines, Final Deadline? I'd like to have at least two WIP Deadlines this time around. The deadlines will be as follows: First WIP Deadline: June 1, 2016 Second WIP Deadline: September 1, 2016 FINAL DEADLINE: December 11, 2016 at 11:59pm I would like to have everything submitted by December 11, 2016, which gives almost 2 weeks for everything to be finalized, and readied for release. This year, because of the length of time we have, I'm going to be a bit more strict on late tracks. That said, the very latest I intend to take submissions will be by: Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 11:59pm. Questions, Comments, Suggestions? If you have any of these, feel free to drop me a line, or throw those things here in the thread. Either The Coop or myself will answer you as soon as we can. Thank you, and as always, I look forward to hearing your tracks. Track Suggestions In a response to a question about suggestions, I said I would think about some ideas and present them here in the OP. So, here are some ideas. Also, please note, your remixes don't necessarily need to be specifically snow-based level music, or what not, it can be any track you want. Super Mario Bros. Castlevania Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Earthbound Mega Man and Mega Man X (don't forget the Game Boy series!) Megaman Zero 1-4 Chrono Trigger Chrono Cross Final Fantasy series Destiny Tom Clancy series Rainbow Six series Act Raiser Final Fight Street Fighter series King of Fighters series Snatcher Sonic the Hedgehog Undertale (especially this) Super Mario RPG Tales of ... series Assassin's Creed series Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid series Thanks for the reminder Yannic Gerts! Here's a link to all the previous albums! http://williammichael.info/aocc/index.htm

Yay! Not only more judges, but they're not replacing anyone who quit! Congrats all! Let's aim to get the queue down to less than a year again!

Without being prompted, I actually received a PM on March 12th from Air3s that he has a forthcoming update to this track. He's dealing with some frequency issues, so he told me on the 18th to hold up on dealing with the revised version, BUT it had some updates to leads and textures that I think might put it over the top. Also, the cutoff ending was a rendering error that he corrected. Rather than reject, I'll keep this open as he says he plans to have that update by Sunday. -------------------- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzZ-TkKWy5oLZXBkc094V0tsVkE/view?usp=sharing ------------------------------------------------ EDIT (4/19): Sorry to Air3s for slacking on providing this update to the panel. New dad/baybeh times let this get away from me. That said, it was nice to get an update on this without any prompting, so I like that Adeseye had an open mind to go back to this one long after he subbed it. The structure is mostly the same, but there's: * compression reduced * some minor instrumentation changes * a little more dynamic contrast with the textural dropoffs * a little more ear candy (e.g. 1:45, 3:07) * pair of click/pops removed (1:43 & 3:20) * proper ending included (4:22; cutoff was a rendering error last time) There's some ducking at 1:29 during the fullest section of beats that Air3s was aware of and tried to mitigate, where it sounds like other parts drop in volume as the beats hit, but it didn't bother me enough. Everything I liked about the arrangement and subtle morphing of the track is intact, so I retain my (currently sole) YES and hope others reconsider their vote.

Yep @Brandon Strader I definitely see your point actually, and concede to your well considered response. I know the following band is a bit of a money machine, and as such isn't the best example but I think it pulls off a lot of aspects extremely well. Especially the fusion of genres, and the combination of traditional and modern instruments. Alright alright, I like listening to Babymetal. Sue me But I do think this approach at MAGFest would be eaten up MORE IMPORTANTLY @The Legendary Zoltan, whatever you decide to do at MAG will be the right choice. Mr. Strader is correct that you are in the perfect position to meld both hemispheres, and your skill and ability to do so are unquestioned. But o'course it's up to you

Well the whole west vs. east thing, just because it's mostly western remixers covering far east material makes it to some extent western music.. There's also as far as I see, the issue of a lot of old VGM being chiptune and itself not having much of a Japanese sound. Even beyond the issue of not featuring adequately sampled/recreated erhu, shamisen, and other stereotypical instruments, the writing style to some extent gets lost -- and there are a lot of imitators that seem to have blurred the lines a little bit in the oversaturated chiptune scene. So now you don't even know where a piece of music originates. But yeah I think Jahan is in the perfect position to bring a Japanese flavor to some metal for MAGFest, of course it's up to him not anyone else. Erhu and shamisen sound amazing in metal, and some kotos too. Not a lot of people are doing that. I might actually go to MAGFest again if it's to support Jahan and his music.

That's me told

Let's keep it for 2018. 10 years project! Yay! dat's a joke

Nice, dude, this project looks awesome. Very cool to see creative endeavors from OCR members. Good luck on your kickstarter campaign.

Thanks for your help nitrozsz, The Guilty Gear and BlazBlue soundtracks sound awesome! I showed my mom the Grim Fandango soundtrack and she's been listening to it happily for the past 15 minutes. Perhaps I can get her to try out the game now, since I just got it in the Humble Mobile Bundle for Android. Also, I totally forgot how awesome Silent Hill's composer was. Looks like I've got a long lineup of music to look through on the past OC Podcasts; I can't wait to listen to them all and find new music. Thanks again for these suggestions.

There's lot to love in here. The funky backing guitar, the sweet, sweet organs (nice usage of the rotor speed changes), the cool E. Pianos. Some nice synth lead action as well. Although, I also agree that the vocoder is a pretty big problem. Maybe I'm biased because I'm used to hearing stuff like Daft Punk in which the words are (mostly) easily distinguishable, but I do recommend trying to clear it up. I also think that the structure of the arrangement started feeling aimless after a while, and I suggest taking the time to rethink the value of each section of the arrangement to try and rework the structure to keep things more interesting throughout. I think this is very close, so I'm really hoping you'll send in a reworked version! NO (resubmit)

Mr. Nuts has a lot of good points here. I definitely agree that if I didn't have the lyrics in front of me I would never be able to make out what is being said. The vocoding sounds like a good fit for the disco style, but it definitely needs to be more recognizable when it is your lead. I feel like the balance between the parts isn't quite right. The bass feels a little weak, and the soundstage sounds a little empty as a result. Some of the synths feel a bit blocky and thin as well, like at 1:09 and 1:38. Some layering might help out there. I do also agree that the song does get a bit stretched out, though I didn't see that being as much of an issue. Mostly the groove is holding its own, though a little trim here and there might help keep things moving a little better. I think it's on the right track, and the concept is good, but reworking the vocals will take some effort. I'd definitely like to hear this again, and more collars from you guys in the future! No (resubmit)

It's pretty hard to vote on this one. I love this stuff, I breathe 80s electronica. Sadly as much as I like this one there are several issues that hold it back from posting as it is now. First, my main problem are the vocoded vocals. They are indecipherable and as much as I try I can't tell what they are saying for most of the duration of the song. Now, in my own songs I use vocoded vocals that are processed in a way that people can't tell what's being said, but this is used more as a rhythmic element, as another type of synth, that accentuates the arrangement. When you have lead vocals, that go throughout the mix, it's better to tilt in favor of a more human vocalization. I like the tones of the vocoder and you guys did try to keep it interesting by not using a static tone, but in my opinion it would be better to either have less carrier signal in your vocals, or work on it so they are clearer. I think that you could still use the carrier-heavy versions, but more sparrringly. Second, I think the vocoded vocals don't quite sit well in the mix. I think the beat could hit slightly harder. These two aren't dealbreakers but something that could be worked on. When it comes to the arrangement it's hit and miss. The first half is awesome, groovy, interpretative but true to the spirit of this era. But towards the end, it gets lost, with sections that feel longer than they should, and also weird entonations. For example, 3:16 - 4:06 feels very innecessary. There are cool melodies in there, but this section breaks the flow of the track and all the awesome groove just grinds to a halt. In my opinion, the culprit here is the compo limitations under which this track was created. I've always pointed out in these kind of compos, that it's better to do a great remix than a remix that abides by the rules, specially if you plan to submit it to OCR. Sometimes trying to marry two sources together doesn't quite work, and here you can hear the parts where it doesn't very clearly. You've got a good idea here, but I suggest reworking the vocals so the vocoded parts are a highlight and not commonplace across the mix, and cutting out the sections that don't quite blend together with the groove you're going for. If you need to focus 90% of the track in just one of the themes so it feels right, then do so, as the compo rules don't apply anymore. I love this idea, specially the first half is groovy as hell, but I can't pass it with the current issues. Jorito, if you need more/detailed pointers feel free to contact me. NO(Please Resubmit)