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Apparently I count amongst those people who have written techno AND rock... in one! By the way, I also appreciate that @José the Bronx Rican used my baby picture (courtesy of my dad) in the album art! (I'm the sketched baby)

I found myself able to listen to the entire thing on the train back from a day out at London today. It's so refreshing to see so many arrangers specialised in meatier genres trying something new if they hadn't gone down the mellow route before - and for those that did handle it before, it's great to see what vision they had in the grand scheme of things. Silly notes that ended up coming into my head throughout it: - As an artist involved, I obviously got to hear "Baby Blue Sky" before even getting to pick a source. And my thoughts now are the same as they are back then - it's a tough act to respond to; the fusion of Chimp and halc's writing / production respectively works so bleedin' marvelously; and it serves as a great understanding for the album's vision. - Yep, Meteo Xavier's Secret of Mana track turned my least favorite source from the entire game into something much more tonally spaced and clean - as well as by far being the most energetic on the entire album (!!) - Considering a fair number of OCR arrangers are parents now, I'm surprised Eino was the only one that sampled his own kid in this! It also made me want to check out ilomilo as a game, but I don't have neither an XBox (and am keeping refusing to buy them for obvious reasons) or a Windows phone to play it on... - I can trust a trance-based arranger like bLiNd to make a pun on Samuel Barber's famous classical adagio. I guess it won't be long until it'll get other EDM remixes from people around GameChops or something... - You did good with that accordion, zyko. You stood out all those years as a musician that focused on stylistic creativity, so I'm glad to hear a track that makes it feel like you - Hearing E-Bison's re-harmonizations in the Sleepytime disc feels as if C418 ended up on the roster spiritually. Actually... did the 'recruitment net' get that wide we could've had C418 doing something for this? - LOL at Zoltan's sillytime bonus! Just wait til you get halfway through and you'll see what I mean. and who's that Rexy chick again? Some cute animal loving n00b? lol This album may have come out of the (baby) blue in terms of release, but it seems to be going really well. Hopefully this time we'll get those that think OCR does 'too much techno' or 'too much rock' to be silenced if only for a little while.

Preview Esther's Dreams: http://youtu.be/_RO1P0E2jAM Download Esther's Dreams: http://esther.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Esther's_Dreams.torrent Before djpretzel's daughter Esther was born, Dave's sister Emily emailed me wondering if I could coordinate a baby-themed album as a celebratory surprise for the baby shower. I loved the idea and the lullaby focus was an obvious choice. That said, I'm a relaxed kind of guy and took my time; being completely honest, I also didn't want to jinx anything before the little bundle arrived, but envisioning this being released after Esther's successful first year of life really resonated with me and gave the community ample time to come up with some fun and relaxed pieces. We privately shared the community's work with djp for Esther's first birthday, and now that Esther's two AND joined by bouncing baby Sarah, we're finally ready (and possessing enough free cycles -- barely, I've got my own daughter now too!) to release this joyous musical effort to the community at large. When I told Kris about the album concept, she let me know from the start that she'd be involved in a big way, and indeed she was the driving force behind making this happen, always asking for status updates and ensuring things moved forward. In life, the squeaky wheel gets the grease (live by it!), so be sure to surround yourself with good people who won't tolerate you being in a state other than motivated and focused. Kris's idea to segment the album based on energy levels was excellent, and I love how things turned out by going for three different discs, Playtime, Downtime, and Sleepytime. For those of you who are parents with young kids, please let us know if they work as good background or sleep-inducing music for your little ones. Thank you so much to Emily for asking me to make this happen, Kris for reminding me to make this happen, and thank you especially to the artists for their inspired work, baby photos (!), and for sharing pieces of themselves in their music. They've not only come together to do something cool for lil' Esther, her mom Anna, and proud papa Dave as OCR's founder; they've also come together to create music infused with the energy of youth, innocence, love, and family. From our VGM-loving family to yours, enjoy! - Larry Oji (Liontamer) I became a judge on December 13, 2013, and six days later on December 19th, djpretzel became a first-time father to beautiful Esther. During a flurry of new-judge chatting, Larry casually asked if a few of us could throw together some baby-friendly tracks for Dave, to celebrate Esther's birth. Larry was looking for about five tracks, to be completed within two weeks or so. Haha! This was just a few days before Christmas and MAGFest, so the response was lukewarm at best. Busy people, busy time of year. At MAGFest, halc and I hatched a plan to collab on a track from Yoshi Touch & Go that totally fit the bill for the baby concept. We got the track ("Baby Blue Sky") finished by February, but ours was still the only one. Fast forward: one enormous mass-email written by Larry, much bugging of Larry by me, and one full year later, and we had 32 lovely baby-friendly tracks we presented to Dave for Esther's first birthday! The response to the call for tracks was tremendous, everyone was super-enthusiastic, and we received enough varied tracks to create three separate discs: Playtime, Downtime, and Sleepytime, with a mini-bonus disc of Sillytime. We've got music for every baby mood! Congratulations, Dave and Anna, on Esther. She really is the most beautiful kid I've ever seen (besides my own kid, OF COURSE). We hope you enjoy these tracks, and we really hope both Esther and Sarah enjoy these tracks. - Kristina Scheps (Chimpazilla)

UPDATE: Hi everybody. Been busy behind the scenes as ever. So July 1st brought in another deadline for some of you guys, most of them have been submitted. Sounding great, cheers! The upgrade to OCRA has seen a lot of excitement. Those of you who haven't submitted have pretty much all given reasons, and that's very cool of you. Cheers for that too, looking forward to hearing what you bring to the table. For others of you, the next deadline is August 1st. But you know that because I just messaged you, reminding you as such . The positivity is awesome, and this clock seems to be pretty well oiled, I must say (touch wood). Keep up the momentum guys. So... July 1st also brought another milestone. 6 months since the inception of the project. Happy half-birthday mofos! I've decided to put a cut-off point on the claim process, to keep the ball rolling and to maintain the growth of the project. As we stand, we have a total of 34 tracks on the album split into 3 discs with the themes "Rest", "Quest" and "Battle". Currently 29 of them are claimed 24 of which are completed or have evidence of work in progress. If by September 1st we don't have 30+ tracks being actively worked on, it'll be split into a double-disc instead, with the titles "Light" and "Darkness". Which side will your track be on, I wonder??? As I say, this is purely to keep the album rolling smoothly. 8 months is a decent point, methinks, and we can't keep the recruitment process open forever... That way lies development limbo. Besides, It'll actually be very cool to move on to the next stage! Here's a list of the remaining unclaimed tracks for any who may want to step in: European Town Call at a Port Freedom Southern Rhythm The Castle of Dragoon Anyways, as ever, great work so far peeps. Keep it up. Really delighted with what's being brought to the table so regularly and consistently. This album is shaping up to be epic, eclectic and emotive across the spectrum. If you haven't claimed, but would like to, don't be shy! Drop a message here, or hit me or @Trism up in a PM. Take it easy, lads and lasses! Odai out

No problem with the direction of this mix, like Sir_NutS had, but he think he's spot on about the staticness of the arrangement. I also think the source song is pretty boring personally, and has the same problem as your mix. The groove is good, but I don't think it's interesting enough to carry a song for 3 minutes, despite a lot of effort on your part to include variations. Sometimes a mix needs micro variations (changes in notes, flourishes) and sometimes macro variations (new sections, dropouts), and I think more macro variations would be in order here. I don't think that issue alone is a dealbreaker FYI, but combined with some offputting sounds (the synth at 0:14 always sticks out like a sore thumb for me) and the abrupt ending, it feel a bit short for me. I think it's very fixable, and this is the kind of sub I'd like to see get posted. Hope you can give us another go. NO (resubmit)

I'm having issues understanding the direction of this remix, it seems like you're trying to go for a melancholic, but sort of odd/off left field sounding lo-fi guitar infused arrangement, but the approach feels like it clashes with the arrangement. I was thinking this before listening to the original and after I did it made more sense. The original is a very tropical sounding/relaxing arrangement. I think that, because you kept the original cues pretty much intact for the most part, it's not working well with this different approach and would require to do some changes in the structure of the original arrangement to make it fit. Regardless of this feeling of clashing visions I'm getting, which is honestly borderline subjective, I feel the arrangement is very static and I hear your attempts at keeping it interesting by adding several different variations and embellishments on top, but the core of the arrangement remains pretty static throughout, and even makes the song feel longer than it really is. It's a very short arrangement but due to its static and repetitive nature it feels like it meanders about for too long. Regarding the production, it's good, the lo-fi elements are handled well and the mix is clean, I was not very fond of some of the choices regarding the sound palette such as the short synth used in places such as 0:27. The drums are well sequenced. Not a fan of the ending, pretty uneventful and sudden. I think Gario also has some points but I think we mostly agree with the issues here. NO

OverClocked University: Spring Break DJ Set GET IT HERE, CHUMS! https://t.co/UStHNTaeop The sun is shining, the waves are crashing, and there is an umbrella in your drink. It’s gotta be spring break! Get down with the latest OCU release, “OverClocked University: Spring Break DJ Set”. It’s sunny, it’s synthy, and every track is completely crossfaded to have a continuous playing time, so the party never stops. Featuring fully-licensed music from: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Bravely Default Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Final Fantasy V Mario Kart Wii NiGHTS… into Dreams Pokemon Black/White The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Street Fighter 2 Tales of Innocence Undertale Xenogears Available soon from OverClocked Records!

Thanks guys for picking up and enjoying the album! <3 We are working on 2 albums right now - Sophomore Year and a second one, focused on just one game series. ETA unknown, but it will be less of a wait than it was for this one!

6 more days! We are really excited to hear what you guys all think about the album! The physical discs are being produced and should arrive within the next day or so, and the digital ones are all being tagged. Hyyyyyyypeeee

Legend of Dragoon love! Awesome! Big fan of the game, and I'm very glad to hear the soundtrack get some love on here. You have a very smooth, relaxed arrangement, and I absolutely love the lo-fi direction you went with the guitars and drums. It's chill, and it works great. The arrangement is very plain, and it has a pretty static soundscape. It relies quite a bit on the additional flourishes in the guitar portion and melody in order to set itself apart from the source, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's enough. The overall soundscape, while great, doesn't really develop - it stays in the same place throughout the entire song. Fortunately the song is short enough to where it doesn't create too much of an issue, but it would be a good idea to change up the texture once or twice in the track (drop a few instruments, perhaps utilize a new synth for a section, etc.). The ending is a bigger issue, though. It just sort of ends - that doesn't do this mix justice. This track really needs a more substantial ending than what you gave it, and it would be very helpful if the arrangement took a few more liberties with the source. The production is quite good. I know you're going for the lo-fi sound in the guitar, and it works for the most part. At 1:04, though, the guitar harmonies punch through too much - due to a combination of the poorer quality recording and mixing it louder than normal, it sounds jarring. Mix that part down, making it match the guitar levels of the rest of the track. I like it, but that ending kills it. While the conservative nature of the arrangement, static soundscape and the slip up on the guitar mixing at 1:04 affect it as well, that ending is what made me vote as I did - give it a more substantial ending, fix the mixing at 1:04 and play around with the source & soundscape a little more. If you do that, you'll easily have my vote, as I think this is a great track, and very close to being a pass. NO/RESUB

Yo guyzzzz here is a trailer! The release date is MAY 30! The album is fully licensed and will be $10!

We are still looking at options for the physical release (production costs of 1 disc vs. 2), but the digital version of the album will have individual tracks as well as one super mix.