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i don't think any good composer wants something to sound completely mechanical (100% perfectly-quantized rhythm, zero variation in velocities), because it sounds stiff and lifeless. It's not an "obsession"; it's the product of a trained ear. Mechanical notes are the equivalent of a real person playing with zero emotion, and evidently, a person cannot have 100% perfectly-quantized rhythm, nor can they have perfectly even note intensities in real life - that would be extremely unusual. For pianists as an example, a real person does not plunk down notes at the exact robotic intensity or rhythm on every single note (unless they truly try to play badly by slamming a finger onto a piano for every single note, which is not how anyone is supposed to play piano, even beginners who don't have experience using all their fingers on a piano). When we on the forums ask for humanization for a track to be submitted to OCR, we usually aren't saying, "go make it so no one, not even the best digital music composer in the world, can tell it's a sample." We're often saying, "make it so it's not so stiff in rhythm and intensity, so that there are actual dynamics in the song." The point of humanization is to give a sensation of dynamics, and that doesn't always require realistic rhythms and intensities. As long as the rhythm is not 100% quantized, and as long as the note intensities are varied, that's a step towards humanization - at that point, you should ask yourself, "is this how a human being would play it [approximately]?", and adjust further until at the time, you think it sounds good. It doesn't have to be convincing to everyone, but the "general audience" shouldn't be able to tell that much. Sometimes the rhythm and intensity adjustments are subtle, or sometimes they're kind of obvious, depending on your experience in rhythm. For example: Mechanical rhythm + intensity Mechanical rhythm Mechanical intensity Fairly realistic You should also consider the context - is the instrument in question exposed, or mixed down pretty well that it becomes harder to hear the qualities that tell you it needs humanization? So, for a solo piano performance, humanization is absolutely crucial; for something that features a piano but not at the forefront, probably not as necessary to be uber-realistic... With certain OSTs, people don't necessarily shoot for "man, I can't tell if this is a real band or not." As long as it fits the mood, era, etc. for the game, and the composer and other participants are happy with it, I think it's fine. It's what they were going for, probably. But I would say those standards are associated with the fact that the relevant OSTs are probably pretty old, like 8-bit, 16-bit, stuff that's pre-2000s - early 2000s. Or, it's based on dated styles. I don't think anyone expects something crazy-realistic from, say, Pokemon Sapphire's OST, but it fits for a GBA game. If it "holds up song writing", then it just means you need more practice working faster. It honestly doesn't make me slower, because I'm used to it, and I adjust velocities and rhythm as I go, instead of putting it off until the end. That way it doesn't feel like a lot of work left to do later. You don't want to grade 48 lab reports the day before they're due; you want to grade a few every day until you have to turn them in later, so that it's not such a pain for you.

Well you must have liked the Torvus Bog music. Your rendition torvus clockwork was the first remix I listened to that I would be completely fine with if it replaced the original track. Unless you did the track because you didn't like it. I agree though. Don't skip Echoes. I would have to say the first is my favourite out of the trilogy. Echoes and corruption both have good points and bad points. Echoes had annoying ammo and big difficulty spikes at points (at least for me). But a great, if somewhat dark atmosphere. Corruption had too many cut-scenes when navigating, and I feel the supercharge function was used to little.(Although, that is probably a realistic approach.) But it had a good balance between leaving you alone in the world, and interacting with the GF.

Thought fans of Robyn Miller's work on Myst and Riven would want to know that he's released the soundtrack to their spiritual successor, Obduction, which itself was just released yesterday after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013. Here's the soundtrack: https://robynmiller.bandcamp.com/album/obduction-original-game-sountrack

I thought September was the final deadline and was pretty far along toward finishing this... However... Strader is our buddy and the guy who introduced us to OC Remix. He's been helping us over the years to get to a point where one of our songs would finally be accepted. With respect to all of you involved in the project (except Geoffrey) Juja and I are going to bow out.

I'm really happy how this topic turned out. Thanks for the replies!

Something else on the topic of humanization in general. When you write with non real (fake) instruments, you indeed have to add all those tiny articulations and stuff and it takes up a lot of time, which might seem a bit of a wasted effort. But don't forget that when you use non fake (real) instruments you do the exact same thing. The art of phrasing isn't something as naturel as it may seem. When I write for ensembles I spent hours and hours on articulation notation. Singing the lines, seeing whether the third note needs a tenuto or an accent. The difference between a staccato and a marcato note is huge. The whole humanization concept is basically the same thing as when you're writing for non real (fake) instruments, and takes just as much time. When I play in an orchestra or combo or whatever and my sheets don't have any articulations on it, well, I just don't know what to make out of it. Humanization is an important part of music, whether you're using a midi keyboard, a symphonic orchestra, or if you're playing all instruments by yourself. Denying or underestimating its importance is a very dangerous thing which can't ever be good for your music. I'm not saying that you're doing that, but it's just generally a good thing to not see non real (fake) instruments as a different thing than non fake (real) instruments. Because, in the end, when you're writing for those instrument, you have to get into the instruments and player anyway, and try to see how you'd play it if you were actually playing. And then try to mimic the impression of the sound you have in your head and convey it either on paper, or in your DAW.

hey Rhino, might want to change this thread from Recruiting to Album art or Closed or something. just a suggestion.

Ok, but what's the bad news? Honestly, I was considering pulling my track from the project just because of how much of a jackass Strader was being (not that it was in any way out of character for him). Now I'll actually do my best to finish it.

i'm just here for the musik.

I was kinda doubtful on my participation thanks to last week's drama but I'll continue as long as the project is alive. However, I'm not sure I can make the deadline lol.

I will be back on the project. The reason I left was strictly personal between Brandon and I, and we can leave it at that.

@djpretzel @zircon @JJT Well shit. Thats sucks. I don't know what happened or what was said but for someone who has given a lot of time to this community and then be cutoff is rough. Hopefully bridges can mend in the future, but its nice that you guys want to keep this going. I also do hope that @OA @Sam Ascher-Weiss can get back on the project cause I was rather looking forward to their tracks. I appreciate Brandon and his hard work but lets move forward and see this through for the community. We're all welcome to release our music elsewhere but contributing together is what makes it special here.

@HeavenWraith, @Chernabogue, @Tuberz McGee, @Chris Porter Music, @Wiesty, @Sagnewshreds, @Manji, @RiverSound, @Ivan Hakštok, @XPRTNovice, @Gario, @Geoffrey Taucer, @DjjD, @jnWake, @shadowpsyc, @bluelighter, @Larsec, @fxsnowy, @DusK, @Jackson Alexander Parodi, @Jorito, @theshaggyfreak, @audio fidelity, @zykO, @Jivemaster, @Cyril the Wolf, @Hat, @Hipnotyk, @Amphibious, @Jason Covenant Bad news... Unfortunately, due to recent events, Brandon Strader has been permanently banned from these forums. In the interest of full disclosure, if you have not already read through them, the relevant threads are linked below. We have always tried to keep both the submission evaluation & album direction processes about the music, and not about the politics, personalities, or drama surrounding anyone participating, and for sixteen years we've been able to do a pretty good job with that, but a line is crossed when there's libel involved and when someone consistently spreads unfounded accusations and bad faith rumors about this site and its staff. I'd like to apologize to all artists contributing to this project who have been doing an excellent job; one thing I'll certainly say is that Brandon DOES know how to run an album project, as he has shown. In a perfect world, we would never dream of interfering with or jeopardizing the successful completion of what should be an amazing album, but alas, our world is not perfect. In spite of the risk to projects Brandon has underway, we feel that his threats, accusations, and general attitude towards the site do not make him an appropriate director of a community album, or an acceptable presence on these forums. But wait, the show isn't over... I've spoken with @JJT & @zircon and between the three of us, we feel that we can direct this album and continue on the path laid out, towards a successful release. This is absolutely dependent on whether you, the contributing artists, are okay with this change of leadership. We will completely understand if this leaves a bad taste in your mouth, if you are more loyal to him specifically than to OCR and wish to contact him and resume work via another avenue, or if the whole thing is now dead to you and you want to crawl in a hole somewhere and drink cocoa, however, we HOPE that you will choose to keep trekkin' and see this thing through as an OCR release, and the three of us are going to do our best to make that happen. To that end, we have set up a poll in the FF8 project forum - please vote ASAP so we know where things stand! If you're on the album but can't access the above link, let me know. Absolutely no hard feelings if you wish to continue working with Brandon elsewhere - it won't be an OCR album anymore, and we hope to continue this effort here regardless, but it'll probably be pretty good, based on his track record. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1304971649533011/permalink/1345644188799090/

Thank you very much for the feedback! I appreciate it. Below is the "final" version of my soundscape cover (I added forest sounds). "Final" Version: https://soundcloud.com/willpisani/chrono-trigger-secret-of-the-forest What do you think?

Hello, first of all i hope its okay to write about an own website here..i ve read the rules but didnt see a part about it http://www.game-art-hq.com About 4 Months ago i started the project "Game-Art-HQ.Com" It was and is my target to make a platform for chosen fan art related to video games of a certain quality, just like it happens here with the judged remixes. Its in a whole a different system there, i dont have something like a jury, i alone ask artists which made fan art if i can feature their works ..so for now it totaly depends on my own opinion if someones works appear on GA-HQ or not The next inspiration i had from OCR were the Projects I know ocr since now nearly ten years and visited the forum often to see the progresses of the remix project forums and loved the idea that many artists worked on a big thing. Thats something i tried with a fana rt tribute project now for the Mortal Kombat games, i made a list of 80 playable and unplayable characters from the MK game series, these could be claimed by artists..but only one character per artist..since 03.10 all 80 characters were claimed..over 50 entries are submitted to the project already The Project can be seen here http://www.game-art-hq.com/the-mortal-kombat-immortal-fan-art-project/ i am sure MK is not everyone`s thing and there is a second project for boss characters of fighting games already There is a lot more, like official released artworks from the game companys, screenshots, cosplay galleries.. a few interviews and reviews Every artist or cosplayer i feature on ga-hq was asked for the permission to do that and always gets a link to his prefered website..other website admins just copy and use what they see often, i instead try to work with the artists and make it a win/win/win situation in the form of visitors for both parties and fans which like to see good fan art Thanks a lot DJPretzel and everyone else who build up this awesome community

wow..the thread got down..hope its okay i revive it Not only was a lot done layout and design wise, content was added a ton too but a new Fan Art project (the third one) is on the way too, since its Street Fighter`s 25th Anniversary i organized a fan art tribute project like no other before. Not less than 214 Artists will be invovled if everything works. 113 artists signed up already 90 Street Fighter Characters from SF I up to SFXT (Poison Kiss) will be drawn by 2 artists each. 8 SF Characters will be drawn with a gender redesign /change 8 SF characters will be drawn 10-20 years older 5 "epic" battles are displayed by 10 artists, battles like SF Alpha Ryu vs Ken, Adon vs Sagat, Karin vs Sakura etc I have around 20 entries already, the project starts officially on februar 12.2012 The first tribute i organized which was about Mortal kombat is nearly complete, 79 of 80 characters were drawn, the last one should arrive this week http://www.game-art-hq.com/the-mortal-kombat-immortal-fan-art-project/ The second project was about boss characters of fighting games, it was a great success, around 50 artists draw over 80 images. even katsuhiro Harada, the producer of Tekken saw and complimented it a while ago on twitter http://www.game-art-hq.com/a-tribute-to-the-boss-round-1-fighting-games/

Brain bleach! Where is the brain bleach?!

who do you think you are

this this right here

Wait... I'm pretty sure this thread is about videogames. *head asplode*