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It is with great pride and joy that I release the tenth An OverClocked Christmas album today. Thank you to everyone who participated and tried to participate. Thank you to everyone who listens to the wonderful work of every single musician involved. Without all of you, there would be no An OverClocked Christmas! Thank you, and enjoy the album! Get it here: http://williammichael.info/aocc/index.htm

I'm gonna do something unprecedented...ish. I'm gonna extend this round to Dec 24th. Why? Because #reasons. The compo scene is pretty dead during this time of year anyhow - so may as well extend stuff so (correction: additional) people can find time to enter. Plus it gives me a chance to enter cuz I'm pretty beat and overworked. So Deadline: Dec24th Sat 1PM Vote Ends: Dec 26 Mon 11 PM

Pretty nice atmosphere here; it has this "busy" feel to it that vaguely reminds me of The Crystal Method. I like how it's a hybrid of straightforward EDM and complextro's warping.

Hey there, beautiful OCR people! OverChoral ReMix! It's an idea that I've been juggling for many years, and yet I've either never had the time or got too distracted with other projects and such to get it off the ground. Since I've been in pretty solid shape over the last year, though, I've decided to give this a real shot. There is a LOT of talent on here, and this is something that I can see coming together and really creating some spectacular music that no one in the community has ever heard before, but it's also something that no one can do alone, either. We need an OCR community choir, and I'm here to offer direction to this group. I will likely be messaging a few people that have shown some form of interest in this effort in the past, but I'm also inviting anyone and everyone to give this a chance, if they have any inclination to do so. If you've ever sung in anything in the past, you will most certainly help. If you can read sheet music to any degree, you will be an absolute asset to this initiative (though I'll work with you if you can't read sheet music). If you can compose and want to supply the group with a VG arrangement, I absolutely insist you send it our way (once we've become established, of course!). To give you an idea of how this will work: If someone produces a solid choral VG arrangement (score, lyrics, etc.), we will sing it, and I will mix it to make it sound like we're singing in a choir. If needed, I will figure out a way to conduct for everyone (brushin' up on my conducting skills!), and I will help with diction (pronunciation), as necessary. To make something like this work, we need to have a solid mix of voices. This includes: - Sopranos (Presumptive range: Middle "C" to "A" two octaves above) - Altos (Presumptive range: "F" below middle C to middle "C" an octave above) - Tenors (Presumptive range: "C" below middle C to "G" above middle C) - Bass (Presumptive range: "E" an octave and a half below middle C to Middle "C") This will not work without at least two people per range, though we can use more than that if others decide to participate (and I hope that they do). This sort of thing has been done before (think FF4 album's Fabul's Men's Choir), and I won't lie that this idea was inspired by this, in some sense. It has also been done on a far larger scale by Eric Whitacre (which turned out beautifully, by the way). This will hopefully be somewhere in between those two examples in terms of scope. I absolutely look forward to working with anyone and everyone that is willing to be involved in this. Currently, I have one arrangement that we can work through, in order to see how well this works in practice (and, let's face it, to make a kick-ass choral VG arrangement, to boot), and I'm hoping that in time we can make more music like it if it works out well. Post in here or PM me if you're at all interested! Be sure to provide your vocal range that you can work comfortably in. Let's make this happen. Members so far: Sopranos: Peíorele* Altos: Rexy* Wildfire* Final Kingdom* Tenors: Gario* Flexstyle* Bowlerhat* Wiesty* Basses: DS394* The Nikanoru* Anorax(?)* Note: Those marked with * have confirmed that they can read sheet music.

Jey Set Radio Fans! So I did a vocal mix/freestyle to "Let Mom Sleep" from the game! One of my favorite songs from it! Hope you guys like this!

Turns out I won't be able to knock out a bonus entry. Been out most all day and don't have the time to finish up my track... Looking forward to listening to all of your tracks!

Really liked that middle passage. That's more like where the complextro came in - as a "solo", but that was the highlight for me. Oh, and I see you're integrating Juggernaut in your mixes lately

You flow is nice but you need a better beat man, beat needs kick drums and other instruments to make it more alive

i find my most rushed mixes tend to be the most creative. This one is already shaping up to be a real goofer. Hopefully i can get it polished up by deadline.

To be honest, the group seems to be coming together a little faster than I expected (what a nice problem to have!). I think we need to work on the next few steps of this beast: First, we all need a place to meet, convene, etc. which would work better than the PM messages on here. OCR's PM system is great for coordinating between a few members at a time, but I'm finding it difficult to actually send messages to groups larger than five on here. I will try to get get an OCR Discord channel established in the next few days, and I will send invites to everyone who agreed to be in this choir to that channel and we'll continue to coordinate there (Meeting times [if any], availability, etc.). Once that is established, we need to figure out a method of receiving and delegating music. As I said, I have one complete acapella score (A Lufia choral arrangement), and DS394 has another score that he wants assistance with (a Star Fox arrangement, orchestra + choir). With two pieces this is fine, but if we were to receive more we'd need to agree on how we select what we sing. It may or may not be an issue going forward, but it needs to be discussed, at least. Finally, we need to figure out some basic rules when it comes to how we sing, for the sake of consistency, quality of choral recording, audibility of the lyrics, etc. Unlike solo vocal music, choir requires a great deal of coordination among the members, and if we don't establish some ground rules the choral music will sound like a mass of sound rather than multiple talented voices singing in unison. Let's face it - we can make a "wall of sound" with a sample choir, that's not what this group is about. On that last note I have some ground rules that I know from the university choir I attended back from 2006-2008 that I'll post when we have , but I'll likely discuss it among you guys as well and tweak it as necessary. There isn't any specific way that's considered the "right" way, as long as we ALL follow the same rules. It's time to really get the ground work done to make this a reality, now!

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes, that's fine. It is even allowed to continue working on a song you submitted before, as long as there are recognizable changes.

Are we allowed to use tracks that were sources in past compos? As in can we use any sources even if they have been a PRC source before?

So we finished our orientation and discussion and we now have a new forum topic for the album. Please join there for further updates and discussion on the album because it won't be happening in this thread anymore

Staff Director: Jorito Co-director: The Nikanoru Visual artist: Tabby Remixers: Guifrog, Devastus, Radiowar, The Legendary Zoltan, Mikeaudio, Sir Jordanius, Hylian Lemon, PabloComa, Rexy, djpretzel, Sagnewshreds, Chernabogue, Jorito, Sbeast, Jonny Atma, Fishy, DS394, Kylok, ThirdKoopa, HeavyViper, Blake Inc., RebeccaETripp, Rozovian, Eino Keskitalo. Performers: Smooth4lyfe (vocals), JohnStacy (brass), Sagnewshreds (guitar), LaurentheFlute (flute, vocals), JoyDreamer (vocals), Chris ~ Amaterasu (violin), Trev Wignall (violin), Furilas (bass), VGCelloMusic (cello), Kylok (alto sax), Pichu's Dad (tenor sax) Audio support: Jorito Track list Disc 1: Popoi - The Magic of Mana Variations of Fear - Kylok feat. Trev Wignall & Bree The Color Of The Summer Sky - Rexy Whispers - Jorito feat. JoyDreamer & John Stacy A Curious Tale - Hylian Lemon Firedust - Rebecca Tripp Masters Of Mischief - Jorito feat. Smooth4Lyfe Jema's Victory Groove - Pablo Coma feat. Pichu's Dad Secret Of Mozarella - Guifrog Steel And Wubz - DS Home From Here - Mikeaudio No Cab, Fan Pride: Boku No Infinite Thotty Gaiden - Sir Jordanius Disc 2: Primm - Impetuous Encounters What The Ocean Taught the Forest - djpretzel Kaleidoscope - Guifrog A Sunday Afternoon In August - Chernabogue feat. Furilas & Kylok Together We Will Stand - Eino Keskitalo & Jorito Beyond The Big Infinity - Jorito feat. Sagnewshreds Down The Rabite Hole - Lucas Guimaraes feat. Furilas, Marc Papeghin, VGCellomusic & Jorito The Ordeal - Devastus Eight Magics - Sagnewshreds The Changing Pattern Of Light - Radiowar There's A Dark Lich Hiding In There! - The Legendary Zoltan Disc 3: Randi - Dedication and Determination The Still Night Stirs - Rebecca Tripp In the Dead Of Night - Rozovian Blue Wolves And Ice - Kylok feat. Bree Footsteps To Destiny - Guifrog feat. Chris ~ Amaterasu The Future Foretold - Sbeast Leave Time For Love - GaMetal A Wistful Heart - Jorito feat. John Stacy & Lauren the Flute Meridian Dance - Fishy Shadows From The Past - Blake Inc. Reminiscence Beneath A Great Tree - HeavyViper

So for anybody reading along, we've got a trio of new directors for the Secret of Mana album project: yours truly, HankTheSpankTankJankerson and TheNikanoru. We're already discussing how we'll run the album, orienting ourselves and setting some things in motion behind the scenes. Somewhere in the next few days, we'll probably create a new topic with all the good stuff and get things moving again. See you on the other side

Yo dude, thanks for the compliment though! Our album is out now, too, on Overclocked Records

As usual now with Jorito, we get a solid arrangement but with some production issues bringing it down. In this case there's a lot of mud in the mix, obscuring the drums and bass, and instruments competing for space around the low-mids and mids. The mix could've had more air and be crisper and brighter. The wubs worked ok, but had a bit too much of a white noise quality to them. I will agree with Deia that perhaps a slightly harder sidechaining could've helped clear up some bottom end. As previously noted, the shining aspect of this remix is the arrangement, which is creative and flows well, while also going a lot of places in the song's duration. I loved the lead solos. I know Jorito has been working on getting his production game up lately, and when he does he'll get one easy pass after the other. Right now that's not the case but regarding this song the non-ideal mix and master is not that big of a hurdle for the excellent arrangement to overcome. Take our feedback to heart and keep improving! YES

Wow, talk about some tasty texture. I agree that the mixing is a bit off (theme being mixed into the background at moments like 0:34, background elements getting lost behind the bass at 1:50, etc.), but these aren't dealbreakers for me. It would be amazing if the mixing was crisp and clear, but it's okay as it stands. The energy is pretty high on this one. The section with the vocals and pads works very well in breaking up the piece, but otherwise the second half of the piece lasts a bit too long, fatiguing the listener toward the end. The stretch from 1:50 - 3:50 begins to sound the same at the end, as the texture doesn't change that much, the beats remain static and the harmonies are recycled throughout (3:10 - 3:19 being the only break in harmonies). The bass (not the wubby bass, the rhythmic one) repeats that same pattern over and over in that time frame. I'm glad to see Larry post that time stamp, as there is quite a bit of original writing in this one. I agree that the three step bass-line and harmonies help link this to the source in the long stretch without the melody, but it's still a bit of a stretch. The arrangement is well organized and fun to listen to, and it's got just enough for me to connect it to the source. It's a tough call. The production isn't quite enough to bring this down below a YES vote, but that whole second half drones quite a lot, too. I think it's still a pass, but it's a very close call, for me. YES/BORDERLINE

The track was 3:56-long, so I needed at least 118 seconds of overt source usage somewhere within the piece for the source material to be dominant per the Standards: :03-24, :26-1:11.25, 2:33.5-3:48.5 = 141.25 seconds or 59.8% The 3-note progression of the stuttering beat pattern here (D...B-C, first at :03, more easily heard at :07) is explicitly derived from the beat pattern of the source; it's present and heard in the MSX version, but sounds more obvious in the NES version (:00-:03 of that version). Thanks to that backing pattern, the arrangement's pretty anchored in the source usage, even when the melody's not in play, so it checked out just fine for me. I'm not sure why Jorito linked the SCV4 version of "Vampire Killer," as that pattern's not a part of it. But it is in the MSX version, so his classification of the mix being from that game makes sense. There was some muddy mixing here that ends up obscuring the softer synth lines referencing the "Vampire Killer" melody (e.g. the softer lead synths during :25-:55). I would have liked another pass at the mixing to clarify things, but it wasn't a dealbreaker for me. The speech clip didn't do anything for me, but it was well integrated, especially the original writing and ambiance behind the voice clip. Fun dub-wub elements from 1:48-2:18 leading into that final synth build toward "Vampire Killer" returning at 2:33. At 2:56, I would have liked to have heard something different with the arrangement, which finally happened at 3:11 with the electric guitar doubling the chorus; nice touch there to finish with something high energy and different before the winddown. The electric guitar synth sequencing wasn't the best, but that was almost completely mitigated by layering it with the electrosynth and downplaying the need for it to sound realistic. There could be some production things tightened up, and I see why Chimpa went borderline, but it wasn't a huge enough deal for me to go NO on when the arrangement was strong; the production improvements would just be a "nice to have." I really enjoyed Jorrith's take on a classic theme here! YES

Great source tune, and great concept! I'm loving the sounds used here. I love the spoken breakdown at 1:11, and the soloing at 2:18. The mixing could be better, I feel like better mixing would knock this out of the park. The mix now is overly reverby, with reverb tails overlapping each other and the reverbs need to be high passed so you're not reverbing lows. The instruments compete for frequency space when many things are playing at the same time, everything needs some eq treatment. The kick would have more impact with heavier sidechaining. The snare is very weak. The rest of the percussion sounds pretty good. The instruments generally are somewhat generic, but they are used well. The section from 1:41-2:18 could be sooooo awesome if that growly timbre were mixed to be more full and wide and upfront like a lead, with the teensiest touch of delay (it could move into the background when the solo lead starts). Mastering seems ok, but there's some distortion from 0:30-0:34 when that fast kick pattern plays. Either lighten up on the final limiter, or address the sidechaining in the mix which will help that issue by clearing the soundscape with every kick hit. My other concern is the amount of source use. I hear enough source or chord structure up until 1:11, then 1:11-2:35 is really quite original with no recognizable source use. At 2:35 the chord structure of the original returns. So that's a minute and 25 seconds of zero source in the middle. If I count the rest of the track, there is enough source for me, but let's see what Larry does with his stopwatch. I like this track and I feel like it is over the bar despite my concerns, but if this doesn't pass, take a look at the issues I've brought up. More attention to detail in the mixing of this track will make a huge difference. YES (borderline)