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Have to include some new stuff from Brandon that continues to assume the worst about how OCR is run, including the belief that mixes from popular games were posted in order to maximize YouTube revenue (ignoring all the less popular games we posted mixes from). I want to be sure people can see these accusations. My responses below: Most of you probably don’t know that recently, OC ReMix attempted to monetize videos to get revenue on YouTube. They started doing this on June 14th, 2016 but recently were forced by public response to take it off until such a time that their ducks are in a row. The monetization had been active for 2 months without any of the artists being informed or asked permission, and none of the remixes were legally licensed so that revenue made would be shared with the publisher or rights holders of the music. There were a lot of issues with this taking place, but the most glaring issue is that they did this without asking or informing anyone. They did it in a really shady manner, and tried to justify having done it by saying “nobody noticed for 2 months”. When confronted with this betrayal and questions of legality and ethics, some staff shared their opinions, while others — such as site owner djpretzel — became very defensive, and ultimately brushed concerns aside. At the end of the short discussion, I was blamed for “misrepresenting” the situation, or making OCR “toxic” by airing my concerns, speculation, and grievances. My biggest problem from the start was that they had gone behind our backs — we, the artists, who essentially provide all of the content for OCR — and did this without asking and without permission. Then, when confronted about it, they justified generating revenue on this platform outside of OCR (YouTube) by saying it’s “the same as advertisements on the OCR website.” I personally don’t see it that way. YouTube is a free service, and “remixes” need to be legally licensed so that the rights holders get their fair share of the revenue. If the YouTube aspect had been in the agreement to begin with, or if we had simply been asked if it was alright, this probably wouldn’t have been such a big deal. Site owner djpretzel has stated that the Content Policy will rightfully be updated to reflect changing technologies, as the original policy had been written in 2007. The second thing that bothered me about the situation is that rather than apologize, and simply state that they’re going to try to work harder to appear ethical and work more diligently to adhere to legality as much as possible, I was demonized and scapegoated by site owner djpretzel. I was, more or less, accused of “poisoning the well” as he brushed aside the negative concerns surrounding the situation. I have often, for multiple years, been critical of OC ReMix’s lack of accountability and transparency. Going forward, I will probably also be critical of their lack of trust and good will. As someone who provides content for the website, and essentially a customer (if you would consider OCR to be acompany), I am in no position to be scapegoated any more than any other customer would be for asking questions. That’s unprofessional, and demonizing me over the situation is embarrassing and shows a lack of character, something that has been coming more to the forefront with how OCR conducts its business. As a result of this whole disrespectful display, and waste of mytime, I am ready to remove all of my personal content that I produced alone from OC ReMix. However, I decided to do what OCR was not capable of and leave this decision up to the fans. Only 8 people voted in the poll I pinned on Twitter, sadly, which is hardly a sample size worthy of note. But in an age where people don’t really care that much to begin with, this is probably the best I can do outside of running the poll for a month and publicizing the situation in other ways. So in brief: I’m not going to request my content removed from OC ReMix. However, as a result of this petty, inept nonsense, I am going to be seeking other avenues to release and promote my own content — legally, and in a manner that I can’t be exploited in some way. This may mean many less submissions to OCR, and more legally licensed, high quality projects released through Loudr, available on iTunes and Spotify, in addition to original music released through similar platforms. (ed: I forgot to mention YouTube. I will still put all my new mixes on YouTube unless they’re made for a project.) I have no intention to end any of my current projects. The only difference you might see is less fresh content going towards OC ReMix from me personally, yet the projects that are currently active (FF3, FF8, others) should ultimately not be affected. I can only hope that the revenue generated by upcoming projects allows the staff to look past their grudges, as the artists involved deserve to have their content heard if they agree to release their content through OC Remix. Thank you for reading, Brandon E. Strader Sagnewshreds, on 15 Aug 2016 - 01:46 AM, said: Need to be clear that Brandon wasn't blamed for "misrepresenting" the situation, as if it were just a difference of opinion. Despite pages of discussion and details, he's continued with over-the-top conspiracy theories, fake claims of evidence, and conclusions in bad faith that were literally libel. We believe the Content Policy gives OCR the permission to republish the mixes on other sites and present advertising in the context of the submitted materials, that fair use allows us to do this without licensing the music, with the revenue going to OC ReMix as an organization and that all revenue is disallowed from being used for profit. He doesn't agree with that point of view, and that should have been the focus of his issues. But negative concerns weren't brushed aside as he claims, and Brandon wasn't the only person who shared them. He also claims there were no apologies and that no commitment was made to transparency and legality. People can read through this thread and see all of the back-and-forth. Everything brought up was addressed. I will say that Brandon is very good at projection, since demonizing people, being disrespectful, and displaying a lack of trust & goodwill are things he was great at in this discussion. One thing not mentioned before is that enabling YouTube ads increases the search ranking of the content, the same way that enabling ratings does. Back when we started the YT channel, we actually disabled ratings for everything to match how we didn't do polling or ratings of the mixes. It turned out that disabling ratings made YouTube reduce the visibility of the videos. But enabling those things makes YouTube increase their visibility, so we're trying to get the mixes heard by more people. That may explain why the SM64 mix, which was the first one with monetization turned on, received greater views; YouTube actually gives more weight in discoverability to content that's monetized and allows ratings. That said, I'm the sole person that decides mixpost order these days (because I'm tagging them up and staging them), and claiming that we were just posting popular mixes to maximize YouTube revenue is silly and needlessly overthinking things. Sagnewshreds called your suspicions "tinfoilly," and he's right. For posting your Chrono Cross mix out of cycle, sometimes I do that. I just noticed you hadn't had a mix posted in about a month and didn't know you had anything else waiting besides some tracks on the FF9 project that were going to be posted on 9/9. We can't state enough how we're not actually motivated by money and don't profit, but in any case, in the 2 month period where ads were enabled on 43 out of 3,000+ videos, we also had mixes from Gradius Gaiden, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Yoshi Touch & Go, Skylanders, ilomilo, To the Moon (yours), Global Gladiators, Lufia II, Rollerball, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Tyrian, Vectorman, After Burner, and R-Type for the C64. Have to say this over and over again: we don't care what game something is from. At all. It doesn't change how we evaluate anything. If the submission is creative and interpretive enough with the arrangement, and produced well enough, we'll post it. We don't post stuff from certain games to boost ad revenue or social media metrics or whatever. Also, all ads were off since the 14th, including when that Chrono Trigger album trailer went up (plus we had already decided not to monetize trailers (which is why you yourself noticed the Esther's Dreams trailer wasn't monetized). Brandon's also saying that even BEFORE YouTube monetization, we were ALREADY strategically weighting mixposts to heavily popular games. This is despite publishing an album from him for the super-obscure game Teen Agent. As I've said many times, we don't pick what games are mixed, the ReMixers do. And it almost goes without saying that Chrono Trigger or Mega Man 2 or Final Fantasy VII is more of a nostalgia and popularity draw among the ReMixers themselves, which is why they arrange those games more than others. We don't control that or try to steer anything in that direction. If OCR could have 1,000+ more Tim Follin arrangements, that would be awesome. The last thing I'd say is that I don't know why Brandon put up a poll on keeping his mixes up on OCR. It's very obvious that he assumes the worst about the staff, thinks we're pocketing the ad revenue, maybe buying cars or comics or anything & everything non-OCR related with it, that it's some money-making cabal, that all the staff are complicit in said cabal, and that we'd love to illegally and unethically generate YouTube revenue in the shadows and willingly anger hordes of artists. Since he's convinced it's run like that and unethical like he claims, why would a poll convince him to keep his ReMixes up? Like I said before, no amount of transparency or actions can make Brandon believe that OCR is run honestly, ethically, above board, and without a profit motive. Weighing that, I can't imagine why or how he'd convince himself not to request removal of his mixes. Due to his overly suspicious, paranoid, and imaginative nature about all of this, I think that's inevitable.

So the last constructive part of the YT monetization thread was that mixers were letting djp/OCR that they were fine with OCR running ads on the YouTube videos with their mixes. This, so that OCR could gather more data on the effects of enabling ads. The thread was closed because the discussion got WAY out of hand, but since Dave said he would appreciate if we opted in, this thread is relevant in my eyes. Just to make it clear: THIS THREAD IS NOT MEANT FOR DICSUSSION Just state here if OCR can use your mixes for this test run. And obviously, I opt in

Sí señor. And for collabs, you got my portion of the YESes.

I have no remixes posted currently ... but if/when I do, I'm opting in.

Of course... one hundred fifty percent.

One thing I've learned in organizing several platforms with volunteers: including money changes things. Sure, the people in staff now are not doing it for extra money, but that could be an incentive for people to push for being a staff member. You don't want that line of thought. It also spawns a lot more conspiracy-theories, something you also want to avoid when you're reliant on contributions of others (some if the theories are even going around now that the staff isn't even getting paid). Last but not least: you have to divide the money. Does everyone get an equal share? Or should you get more if you get involved more? Those can be toxic discussions as well. My experience is that these things always get out if hand, no matter how good the intentions see. Compensation for expenses on the other hand works quite well usually (fully compensated travels to conventions and such)

Compo: MnP (Meat 'n Potatoes) Round 59: Lunar: Silver Star Story - "Toward Horizon" Midi: http://compo.thasauce.net/files/materials/MnP59_Lunover2.mid Youtube: "For my pick I'll go with one of my favories from the PS1 era: "Toward the Horizon" from Lunar: Silver Star Story." -Kat Deadline: August 30 Tues 1 PM Vote Ends: September 1 Thurs 11 PM MnP ARCHIVE - made by Trism Submit your remix Here when completed. **If you have technical difficulty with account activation at ThaSauce, please contact me via PM and I will submit your track and will also tally your vote** MISSION STATEMENT The goal of Compo:MnP is to promote that "meat and potatoes" conservative approach to remixing: this includes the mood and composition of source tunes. It is up to the remixer to create their own personalization, or to simply give it a sound upgrade. Moreover, the compo is a great opportunity to hone your remixing skills and give video game music the respect that is due. SOME reinterpretation is recommended, but not required. MnP Instructions/Guidelines 1. Covers and Sound Upgrades are permitted. 2. Most or all of the source notes must be present (but not necessarily in the exact same order), secondly the mood (energy, pacing, feelings being conveyed etc) should also be retained. For example, a source tune that is fast-paced and energetic that's remixed into a mellow/chill-out theme would be a hard sell. 3. If you decide to do a genre swap (i.e. symphonic to techno), make sure that the conditions of #2 are met. 4. Submissions must be at a maximum of 20mb (keeping in step with ThaSauce's file size max). 5. Only 1 entry per participant. Previous winner cannot participate but can submit a BONUS entry. 6. All competitors and voters must adhere to the rules stated within: Competition Code and Conduct MISC/TIPS - When picking a source tune, make sure it has a MIDI to make ppl's lives easier. - In-game sound FX are permitted, so long as they don't comprise the whole track (i.e. replacing entire MIDI tracks with just sfx)

I will be there, as will my husband Jeremy!

If I'm ever on a remix (be it my own or as a collaborative partner on someone else's) feel free. I mean there's already that Sturm track but that wasn't a mixpost, but still.

I'm sorry for the wait, but here it is. Enjoy! The Silly Pink Rabbit

I've only done voice stuff on a few mixes, but I'm fine with anything I'm in being used as long as the collaborators are.

Red Leader, opting in

I only have...one...that's posted, but i'm fine with OCR using ads on it to benefit the site.

Supporting the site that has fostered my favorite hobbie for years? sure.

That amphitheater is pretty dope

Opting in.

Fine with me.

Already known in staff, but opting in!

I opt-in!

Staff knows, but for the public's sake here's my announcement: I'm cool with my mixes being ad'ed in. I'm hilarious.

I'm 1000% ok with any of my submissions being used. For any purpose.

A-OK with me.

Count me in.

I'd like to opt in as well.

Already mentioned at least 2 times, but for convenience sake: joah, go for it.

Already known among staff, but I suppose if we're publicly stating it, here it is. I am obviously fine with my remix videos having ads on them.

I already stated in the other thread that I am completely fine with the monetization. I opt in! Yes

i have known nuts a loooong time, and he over and over again he amazes me with the way he writes his music. to write this song in this key and have it sound so good is just kinda funny i suppose. I usually hear WIPs of his tracks, but this one i didnt even know he was writing until i saw it on the front page. Nuts always out-does anything he has previously done. i am not sure how he keep on going, but im sure glad that he does. awesome job as always

Now it's been forever since ive logged in here. This remix though....holy shit. This song is perfect, the way everything goes together is kind of ridiculous. hopefully it doesnt take as long to hear from you again....just awesome. there is really no more i can say about it

I should really find some way to get there this year...

i didnt think it was possible for a song with such simple instrumentation to bring a person to tears yet here i am by far the most emotionally moving piece ive ever heard on this site. bravo

Brandon, you're the one not reading, or not processing, the responses being provided. It is disingenuous of you to characterize the extensive conversation taking place as our "dancing around" your questions. Please provide a numbered list of the questions you have that you feel remain unanswered; we've responded to some of them, but you're not acknowledging the response. In other cases, we've asked you for clarifications because the questions themselves are unclear... instead of engaging, you are choosing to stonewall our responses and pretend like they either do not exist, or do not address your questions. This latest post, above, is what I was afraid of - this is starting to feel more like an ego trip on your part and less like a genuine conversation about the topic at hand. You're using your position as an album director - which you've always done an excellent job of - as a threat/ultimatum for your voice to have more weight than the many other voices who have chimed in. Do you think that's right? Also, do you think of them as "my projects" - or are they community projects? Would you ask your participating artists to vote first, before making such a unilateral decision - the VERY type of decision you are accusing US of making? Would you at least talk it over with them - what they wanted - as we are attempting to do now? What does "pull everything down" even mean? Do you feel, at this juncture, that there is a single other artist who agrees with your views in full, as you have been presenting them in this thread? Can you summon the artists you've talked to and who would agree with what you're writing, the threats you're making, your decision to ignore our responses, etc., and have them explain why they agree with these actions, and confirm that they indeed do? This conversation is ongoing; if you're going to make it about you by threatening this type of thing, and you think that's appropriate, I'm very disappointed.

As an old guy who is here since pretty much the beginning, I don't know if I count as knowing what's hip these days, but I do listen to mostly electronic music and this remix was an instant download! I LOVE it! The energy is just so powerful and makes me happy

Remixer name: Marshall ArtWebsite: http://marshallart.bandcamp.com/members: jmr (Jeffrey Roberts), streifig (Mikhail Ivanov)Song title: But You're Still HungrySource: Chrono Trigger - Ruined Worldhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HhLHfUTD90MP3: WAV: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqJV1tkBbKk Here's Marshall Art's take on yet another melody-less source, this time from Chrono Trigger. It's one of three songs we made for Chronicles of Time. (For anyone reading this who lives under a rock, it's a massive 5-disc fully-licenced Chrono Trigger tribute project. It was on the front page of iTunes next to Taylor Swift, so you know it's cool.) As per our usual, everything you hear in this song is a single NES (2A03 with VRC6 expansion) and umpteen layers of guitar. I'm particularly proud of the drum sound I was able to pull from the NES (which under normal circumstances is only able to pull of a single, lo-fi sample at a time), and I've gotta hand it to Mikhail for crafting the dreamy, shimmery guitar chords which carry the song. Couple things which I want to point out in the interest of full disclosure: - The melody played by the triangle wave channel at 1:38 is loosely based on the bass line from Lab 16's Ruin, which we also covered for Chronicles of Time. - The dissonant bell sample heard at the end is recreated from the original Korg M1 sample and not ripped from the SNES game. I know how picky a certain company is about sampling from their games. If you're not convinced, listen carefully to the original SNES song and you'll hear the quick echo effect that I didn't recreate because I failed to notice it until long after our version was done. Part of me still wants to go back and fix that... - The guitar at the end is "inspired by" the intro of Deftones' Pink Maggit. I feel like it's fair to call 14 notes in a nearly 6 minute song an "extremely limited" reference, but I'll leave that for you all to judge. All the best, -Jeff / jmr Marshall Art

hmm interesting use of bitcrushing. I'm usually not a fan of what seems a blanket usage of the effect (on the intro) but It definitely adds character here. The bitcrushed triangle wave lead harmonics may be too much for some, I think they're cute. The guitar lead is surprisingly fitting though, and a highlight for me. The climax screams awesomeness and power. I think you did a great job with the arrangement here. Deftones is one of my favorite bands of all time (white pony is one of the best metal albums ever made, imo) and I loved the reference there. Overall amazing work putting this together, these different elements could end in disaster on less experienced hands but you managed to craft this with expertise. YES

Damn, it's good to hear a new remix from this guy. As sometimes I feel like I'm starting to slip with inspiration...it's examples like this that really bring the fact home that, it's never too late to start up that DAW. The remix itself definitely has influence from modern big room/house artists and ends up sounding pretty cohesive yet fun. Awesome comeback.

Take a few steps back from the situation, and you can gain a bit of perspective. It's likely a large majority of the people download this album (when it is eventually released) will have no idea that it took years longer than planned. They'll just be thankful to OverClocked ReMix for providing an awesome multi-disc remix album for a game that doesn't receive too many remixes. As for those involved behind-the-scenes, you can just chalk it up to a learning experience.

Yoooooooo. Fuuuuuuuck. Niiiiiice. YES

Wait a minute... would it be funnier if I called it "Seiken Densetsu Threever?"

Sorry you feel that way, but that's just how it worked out, dude. Some of it has to do with human error and a majority of it has to do with life simply getting in the way for a lot of people in involved. Sure, we could've looked at the incredibly slow progress and said, "well, we're not getting this done as quickly as other people who made multi-artist, multi-disc projects on OCR are doing it so, fuck it, let's just quit." - but we didn't. We could've just cut out a lot of material other artists worked hard for to get it done already, but we didn't. Neither Rozovian or myself could've foreseen it taking this long and it wouldn't have mattered if we could - life would've still gotten in the way. That's just how it happens sometimes. I myself would rather not dwell on things we could've done better or how it SHOULD have gone - I'd prefer to keep going ahead even if its at a snail's pace. This is a passion project and we aren't asking any more of you than just some patience as we keep going forward (except maybe to virtua-sign some red tape, need to confirm with DJP on that). I can't tell you the exact month it's coming out, but it is - we got the music all in and there's just no point in reminding you over and over again that we're working on the administration behind it if we weren't still moving forward to some degree. If it's any consolation of any kind, I'm almost done digging myself out of the personal hell this whole year has given me and I expect to have some better time and availability to get back on things that have slipped down my priority totem pole like getting shit back together behind the scenes for SD3. I could give you a lot of specific details as to what those obstacles were for me and Rozovian, but that would be very impolite on a number of levels as well as not being constructive. Please just be patient with us - this isn't like a bad installer that creeks by at the 97% mark and then just freezes up, we will get to the finish line!

Very rich interpretation of a pretty empty source. I really enjoy the overall re-interpretation of the chords that's present in this arrangement. Changing things from simple chords to 7ths, 9ths, etc., and reinterpreting just what each chord is allows you to expand on the source beautifully. The chiptunes and guitar blend quite well together. I'm not sure downgrading your drums through 2A03 was such a good idea - that bass drum has nearly no presence, which does affect the track negatively. The rest of the percussion is alright, but that bass drum is very weak. The end has about ten seconds of silence that should be sliced off, too - no reason to have that, there. Thanks for providing the sample that you used - I think that should cover you, as far as complying with site policy for SFX usage. This is a very powerful re-imagining of this source. The faults that this holds are pretty minor in comparison to what it brings to the table. It sends chills down my spine, so needless to say I love it. YES

What a cool take on such an odd non-melodic source. I like it a lot. I feel like the whole mix, and the drums in particular are a little more lo-fi than they need to be, but I assume this was a purposeful stylistic choice as it comes from original lo-fi samples. It's amazing what you did with those samples. Regardless of my feelings about this much lo-fi-ness, this works for me. YES

You should try there: http://ocremix.org/community/forum/29-recruit-collaborate/

It's when a mommy core and a daddy core decide they love each other very much on the night daddy core forgot to get condoms from the store...

So much hype!

A little bird told me it could even be released within a week or less. WHAT.

Sorry about the continued radio silence here guys, but I promise this is coming soon. We got bumped back by other albums (FF9, hello there!), but this is still definitely in the works and coming very soon. I released a preview of one of my tracks on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/flexstyle/super-mario-world-2-yoshis-island-do-yoshi-what-i-see-preview And my Patreon backers can actually download the entire song right now! https://www.patreon.com/flexstyle?ty=h Thanks for your patience, and I assure you -- I'm as anxious as you are to get this thing released!

I know there hasn't been a lot of activity on this thread lately, but everything's pretty much done--we're just getting the website built and a few things ironed out. Should be seeing a release this summer!

And that is EXACTLY what trance is. It is about the journey rather than the destination. Hell I may submit something too.