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First of all I'd like to apologise. I never wanted to even insinuate that you guys aren't doing a great job. Because you guys _are_ doing a great job. I probably should have formulated that differently. (Or not at all.) I also realise that you're all volunteers, and I respect the effort that you're putting into this (or the fact that you're even taking the time to read and respond to my posts, since I'm a relative outsider). What really gets to me, though, is the apparent "all or nothing" mentality of these responses, as Liontamer mentions. (Thanks Liontamer!) It's been stupid of me to not point this out specifically, but I never intended for _all_ of the OC Remix catalogue to be put on streaming services. Maybe some day, if possible, yes. But surely not initially. I was mostly considering the album projects. I mean, albums like Voices of the Lifestream would be pretty safe bets as they are easily licensed through, for example, Loudr (only one game per album for most of them), and from what I've seen Square Enix doesn't really make a big fuss about fan arrangements. I mean, OC ReMix could start out posting just the albums on streaming services every week or month or [insert random timeframe here]. Starting with either Kong in Concert, which, from what I gather, would be easily licensable, or Relics of the Chozo if it's possible to license it. Or, of course, if you're feeling adventurous, just upload it rogue. (There are plenty of Super Metroid fan arrangements on Spotify already, so either they got successfully licensed or Nintendo just doesn't seem to care. But I assume OC ReMix respects the original copyright holders sufficiently to not post unlicensed songs.) From there you just continue on, trying to get as many albums on there as possible. That _would_ constitute a moderate amount of effort. So yeah, baby steps. Just having a handful of OC ReMix albums on there would already be awesome. I would never expect anyone to undertake a complete "get all OC ReMix songs on streaming services"-project in one go. That's would be an insane amount of work. But I can't stand it when people just write of an idea all together without exploring all the options. There is almost always room for concessions. Just keep in mind this is not a black or white situation. I still believe OC ReMix could and should extend their songs to Spotify. Also, let me make this clear: this has nothing to do with convenience for me personally. I have both an iTunes Match and Apple Music subscription. So every time new songs or abums come out on OC ReMix I just download them and drag them into iTunes and I'm set. I have all OC ReMix songs available to me where ever I go and I can listen them alongside all the songs on Apple Music, so I don't even need to switch app to listen to one or the other. The colleagues, friends and loved ones that I wish to share music with, however, aren't all as proficient with their computer or smartphone as I am. Neither can I expect them to pay for an iTunes Match subscription, or set up a Plex Media Server, etc. Practically all of them use Spotify, however, so if I just send them a link to an album on Spotify the barrier for getting them to listen to these songs is greatly reduced. Also for a lot of fans like me it serves as additional confirmation of their music tastes not being just this obscure underground thing. This may sound ridiculous to some of you, but I am sure others can understand. Anyway, I really think we're getting off on the wrong foot and that is too bad. Part of this is obviously my fault because, frankly, yeah I have a big mouth and I can come across as quite arrogant when talking about subjects I'm passionate about. But I always try to push my vision of the best solution for a problem, until someone corrects me, then I re-evaluate, and push forward again. Being passionate like this works better when in personal conversation because people can better judge my reactions and I can quickly correct myself, but on forums I tend to get a hard time. So _please_ take my comments with a grain of salt. I'm not really as arrogant as I seem to be. And I really admire the artists and volunteers that put their free time into this community. So keep up the awesome work.

I kind of like the kick, but everything else is very quiet, in comparison. It's a matter of mixing balance - if everything else sounds nearly non-existent in comparison, you've got to cut it back a little bit. More importantly, though, there is a way to use this forum (which you can read here) that this thread generally misses the mark on. One track per thread, one thread per track is the rule (with the exception of posting an album) - more than one track and it becomes difficult for others to comment and discuss your music with you (which is the general sentiment I'm seeing in here, in fact). More than one thread per track... well, I'm sure you can see the issue with that. I hate to shut a thread down (I like the activity, actually), so pick a track and focus on that, and I'll remove the rest. If you want attention on a few other tracks, make a thread for them individually. Sorry I've got to be that guy, but it's a problem if I let things like this go and people get the wrong idea. Don't be too discouraged, though - it means more variety of more focused comments on what you do have, and you can always link you your TY page from your signature, for the sake of garnering attention there.

I tried listening to several of these remixes, and what kills most of them for me is the kick. Spider Dance and Wario Land 2 were the worst offenders--that loud, high-pitched thwacking noise is actually painful to hear. The DKC2 one was pretty nice, I really liked the energy level and instrumentation, though I'm not familiar enough with the source to comment much on the arrangement. It seemed pretty repetitive to me, especially that repeating kettle drum line.

Really enjoyed the mixes I've listened to so far. I like this style even though some songs get a bit repetitive at some point. I plan on listening to the other songs later (you already posted a lot here but there are more in the youtube channels). Keep them coming!!

Hey guys; posted a callout for help with visual identity and branding for RvK over on my tumblr. Quoting here: As many of you know, I have pretty high standards for artwork on my projects (albums and competitions). I'm looking for someone with a very strong sense of good design. This is more than just a "draw some pictures" gig.

Welp, that's what Mod Evals are for, eh? Also, as much as I love R:TS (submit about five songs there, myself), they've been down for about two months now. I've got to get in touch with the head peeps there and see what's up, but it's not looking good lately. Anyhoo, I'll give you a forecast on it, and can let you know how I'll handle it if it gets to the panel. Perks of a mod eval judge. EVAL Well, it's a very solid recreation of the original - I think you nailed it, note for note. Regardless of the quality otherwise, one quirk of OCR is that they, as a rule, require reinterpretation of the source. There's nothing wrong with a good, solid remake of a song in itself, but OCR will likely reject this straight out due to how close it follows the source. I always like to remind people that this does not mean something is inherently bad because it conservatively follows the source; it's just one of the things that OCR requires of the songs it posts. Now, that being said, I'll give some other advice on production and such to help you out for future arrangements. As far as instruments go, I could see them working out okay, but they do get a little boring after some time. The same synths play throughout the track - I think even the source had more variety in instrumentation with the synths and brass. Be sure for your next production to experiment with changing the instrumentation up a little as the piece moves forward, as that can help stretch an arrangement without having the listener fatigue on listening to the instrumentation. I like the chords that you play in the background with that synth at 0:07 (as well as throughout the song) - I think that gives this a more ragtime feel than the source had. Be sure to take elements like that, though, and mix them in such a way that they don't dominate the track, though. It's difficult to hear the themes that are supposed to carry a track when the harmonies are that loud, in comparison. As a rule of thumb, bring your melodies and themes out in a mix so they're the cleanest and clearest, followed by interesting textures, finally with basic chords safely in the background. It's a basic organization, but it keeps the melodic hooks in the front, the interesting textures within listening reach and the harmonies set firmly in the background. Obviously there are plenty of exceptions, but it's a great starting point, as far as making a solidly mixed track. The drums are dry, but they're not bad. The dry-ness is in comparison to how wet your other instruments are; the synths all have a decent amount of reverb on them, while the drums sound like they're from another recording completely. When you have multiple things going on at once in an arrangement, be sure to make it sound like they're being played all in the same conditions, all at once. In this case, either the reverb of the synths should match the drums (not recommended), or the drums should have a little reverb to match the synths. Blending is key, so when instruments don't blend they sound out of place. I hear a synth bass in this, but it's a little bit weak in the bass department. Bass is one of the most important instruments in an arrangement, as it gives a song some grounding to play off of. The bass in this case is quiet, and is lacking in bass EQ. More bass EQ! More presence! YEAH! One final aspect to this is that the middle EQ range feels a little incomplete. The chords that play throughout the track normally would fill the role of filling that EQ space, but in this case the instrument sounds like it fills the upper range of the EQ, instead. This makes the arrangement sound a little bit hollow, so for any other arrangement you go for I do suggest taking a look at using instruments that fill the middle range of the EQ a bit more solidly. I'll be honest and say it's probably not getting to the panel, due to how conservative it is (again, nothing wrong with that, just something OCR won't accept), but if it were to get to the panel that's what advice I'd give on this track. I understand you probably won't work on this (it's six years old, after all - you've probably improved considerably since then), but I thought you'd appreciate a more full rundown on the track. I do hope you stick around and contribute more to the forums here, though - people like you are the lifeblood of the WIP boards, after all. EDIT: I'm aware this wasn't tagged for eval, but considering the intent of the final post in here I thought it would be appropriate, anyhow. Just the way I am, sometimes.

Happy 30th, Metroid series. As much as I enjoy this series, I'mma release a relatively unknown arrangement of Sandy Maridia that I did ages ago for some Metroid orchestration project unrelated to OCR. It was made in Sibelius, so be gentle to the instrument quality, lol. Enjoy the gift. Also, AM2R is absolutely balls-out amazing, and everyone who enjoys any of the 2D metroid games should give it a go. It lives up to the hype, and then some.

Some of the Licensed OCR stuff is on spotify

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that I really like Spotify, and I think it could potentially be really cool to see some of our albums there. I think the submission agreement doesn't preclude that either. With regards to the licensing itself, I stumbled on some interesting info below: http://aristake.com/post/how-to-legally-release-cover-songs Most of this is (somewhat) common knowledge stuff, but the following jumped out to me: "Spotify ALREADY PAYS mechanical royalties directly to HFA (and then HFA pays publishers)... Spotify is paying a mechanical royalty rate at about $.0007 per stream. Not to be confused with the sound recording royalty rate (which is about $.006 per stream on Spotify)..." The licensing angle could indeed be covered, but as mentioned, only for certain games. The soundtrack had to have seen a public US release first. Ultimately it's up to Dave. I think that arguably Spotify monetization is less intrusive for end users than YouTube-inflicted ads, and it WOULD be a cool platform to see our remixes on. Not to mention the royalty payments to the original writer(s) and publisher(s) would be handled by Spotify itself. Just sayin'.

Using that line of reasoning, a more accurate statement would be "all DAWs suck at orchestral music." [1] References 1. My entire SoundCloud page.

Good lord! This remix sounds awesome! It literally got goosebumps.

Uh, guys,... get a room?

Yo guys. I can't make the musics very good yet, but if I can help at all with this album, drop me a line. Obviously we'll cover it on the podcast when the time comes, but my unshakable enthusiasm for Sonic the Hedgehog music demands that I volunteer. If anyone needs feedback or help organizing stuff or what have you, I'm game! And definitely give me a shout before this thing goes live so we can plan for it on the show, hopefully along with an interview. - Stephen

That's totally fine, you shouldn't expect yourself to be at OCR-level right off the bat. Most artists spend years and years trying to reach that level, so I'm glad that you're not discouraged from making more stuff. I'd chalk this up to a learning experience - it's not bad, but you've got lots of room to improve as well. So keep laying down the music and you'll work your way up there in due time Thanks for coming to the workshop forums, hopefully we were able to help give you some direction on what to work on with future mixes!