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Yeah, I know, this has been done before, but now i'm doing it so THERE. I've been wanting to listen to an artists full collective works on ocr for a while to document their growth, also so I can analyse their style and hopefully use that info to improve my own I'm going to be picking artists from random but depending on the length of their collective works, it might take me longer than others to finish my full review. In many cases I may split my reviews into multiple parts. Any feedback anyone has on how I decide to approach this is welcome, I am open to any suggestions to make things a little easier in terms of reading. Without further ado, LETS DO THE THING! Remixer list 1: Prince uf Darkness - Review 2: PrototypeRaptor - Review Upcoming - Avien

Years of mixing experience, personal experimentation, knowing how to use the vst's and plugins you have, and learning to subtly manipulate the listener to maintain their interest in the song/piece. ...it's gonna take some time.

Hey guys, So this might be weird, but you know how jazz music has "standards" that everyone kind of knows the chords and melody to? I'd like something like that for VGM as well. Some of the great staples of this awesome category of music. I went to MAG last year and found that I was scrambling in my brain when someone asked me to call a tune to jam on, and then having to look stuff up on my phone. It killed the vibe sometimes. What, in a jam scenario, do you think should be included? Here are some of my favorites to play in a group: - Song of Storms (Ocarina of Time) - My Village is #1 (Xenogears) - Millennial Fair (CT) - Super Mario 64 world theme - Mario Bros theme

Prince uf Darkness Prince uf Darkness has been absolutely killing in Dwelling of Duels for the last few years, having 14 first place wins in his 31 entries, 8 of which were Alternate entries! In other words, if he enters he’s pretty much guaranteed to do better than you through sheer awesome, and statistically, he has the highest number of wins on the site. So… his music is impressive right? Well, lets see what we have on ocr. I admit, his first 2 tracks took me aback a bit - Not to say they were bad - I was familiar with PuD already, and basically was expecting jazz/metal fusion. However, his first two tracks are a little rough around the edges production wise - his first track “The Hot Pink of Blues” is a very chilled out jazz rock piece. A somewhat understated track, altho it features a really nice virtuosic keys solo from Shnabubula, who is a completely nuts guy in his own right. His second track was “Hell March to the Apocalypse”, which is a highly ambitious heavy metal/orchestral fusion. Both of these tracks are great in their own right and come highly recommended, but the production on these two tracks are slightly lower than his later offerings. This changes with “Sonic Gargles with Garden Marbles” - the funk influence gets more pronounced and the production is tightened up some. This was the first track I heard from PuD and while I found it impressive, it didn’t really put him on my radar yet. At this point, the evolution becomes apparent, as his style gets a little more focused and his production tighter in general - I appreciate the complexity and fusion of his styles through his ocr tracks, and as he keeps getting mixposts, it just keeps getting better and better. However, the first time I really see his style come together is “I Need Scissors! 61!” from Metal Gear Solid 2 - this is, imo, where the highly virtuosic style of jazz/prog metal fusion really comes into play and he starts to really stand out. Crazy solos, rhythms and arrangement quirks aplenty that could give Dream Theater a run for their money. However, I expect in terms of source familiarity, most people will immediately flock to “Prancing Dad” which is, you guessed it, a remix of Dancing Mad, and one Winged Angel. It is 11 minutes and it is, imo, THE Dancing Mad remix to go to. Its as good as the Black Mages version. I believe to be one of ocremixes greatest tracks ever, both in terms of its atheistic and its execution. Staggering stuff. Then he tackled Tim Follin’s Solstice theme… which imo, is bold because Tim Follin is a genius of composition, and while PuD is good, I guess I just have a block where Tim Follin is concerned that you can’t really remix his music and outdo it. My reasoning here is that he is a composer that really pushed the hardware - he used it to its LIMITS. I consider Tim Follin to be a pioneer of chiptune and when remixing you can lose some of those creative ideas that comes from the limitations - which can be distracting. I'm not bashing PuD for remixing it, I'm just pointing out the challenges of remixing such a style of composition. This is coming from a BIG Tim Follin fan however, and this still has some crazy soloing and some nice little breaks in the middle thats both creative and surprisingly welcome. I have to say, tip of the hat for giving a go - he’s the one composer I am too intTIMidated to try and remix. In-tim-idated? no…? Never mind. Moving on, PuDs last two tracks really emphasise the fusion aspects of his style best, with TMNT and Street Fighter remixes. These two also come very very highly recommended. What I will say here is that eventually an artist hits their stride and perfects their craft, which is what these last 2 tracks are. They are tracks made by a person at the top of their game, who knows exactly what they're doing. That said, what makes PuDs stuff interesting - the evolution is there. His tracks start off with a bit more variety but slightly more standard genre-wise, (quite interesting in their own ways however!) and eventually fuses these genres into a whole, recognisable trademark style. Even so, ALL his tracks come recommended - the creativity, complexity, and polish of these tracks are far far beyond what ocr usually tend to offer imo, and he stands out by a mile. My main critique is that his music might be a tad too progressive for some - the tracks at points sacrifice memorable melodies for guitar and synth wankage… but when you’re this good at it, i’ll forgive it, and you should always stick to your strengths. Another minor nitpick is that his endings are sometimes a bit abrupt, but when you’re nitpicking and not pointing out major flaws, you know you’ve got a good product. For Progressive Metal in general, PuD is pretty much king, the Jazz/Funk (and sometimes classical) influences just add a little bit of textural flavour to the proceedings that serves to colour his music and give it that extra creative spark. I strongly recommend “Prancing Dad” and "Casiopizza vs. TMNT-Square", but you can’t really go wrong with any of this. Its highly polished and VERY constant in terms of quality. Some might say Prancing Dad is the highlight but the original source is a masterpiece in its own right. As far as taking what he has to work with - he always knocks it out the park. Dream Theater Fans eat your heart out!

What Garpocalypse said. Another thing to remember is that you can't compare yourself to others all the time. If you are a beginner comparing yourself to a pro who's put in countless hours to be good at their craft, you're only setting yourself up for failure. Comparisons are useful if you're looking at someone else's music thinking "What are they doing that I'm not? How did they achieve that sound?" Look at the art critically, don't just bash yourself. I used to feel the same way when hearing other people's music, to the point where I felt too intimidated to even start producing music. The only way I'll get good enough to remix songs as small as The World's Smallest Violin is if I keep making music, learn my software, and push my creative to the limit. Use the experience with your DAW to make cool remixes like the one you just linked!

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

Agreed with previous posters. To improve in your musical writing ability, you *can* look to others for inspiration. But, a good artist knows the limits of his/her resources, and needs to learn how to expand those limits, whether it's the VSTs owned, or one's ability to use them, or the headphones, or one's ability to construct a good composition, or whatever else. If someone else's piece makes you feel inferior, it's probably not something you should try to exactly emulate. If you still want to try to make something similar, try it, but don't treat it as, "oh, it's not the same so clearly I failed". Treat it as, "mine doesn't sound as big or tight, but I think otherwise I'm kind of getting the idea." Track down what it is that differentiates the original from your try. Is it more compressed? Is there more reverb? Is the stereo field more spacious? Are the sounds more layered? Is there filter motion I don't have? etc. These are the types of questions you should ask, not "how do I make this, but not crappy?".

I have to say, I appreciated the personalized contour on the e. piano partwriting. It takes good effort to take a well-known source and use your own chord progressions. For me, the soundscape could have been a bit more filled, but aside from that, this certainly stands out in a good way.

80s FTW!~!!!!!1

Imma be there. Imma bring soprano sax.

Nice overview of Tony's work, Will; fun read! Looking forward to more.

Yo, that German in the middle of the ReMix is super fitting as a bridge between the heavier electronic halves. Interesting to hear some complextro as a compliment to EDM like this. Adds an extra layer to an already good beat. Solid ReMix, I can dig it.

Well, it's totally up to you if you want to start a remake project for Star Fox SNES. I personally have no problem with this. However, this is a thread for the Star Fox 25th Anniversary Project, so please keep all discussion of the remake project to your thread.

Yesssss! I'll sign you up as a Soprano, for sure. 'A' two octaves is more accurately 'A' an octave and a half up (rounded up), so I think you'll be just fine. Welcome to the group! We're about clear, as far as a group is concerned; one more soprano!

This may not be my favorite source, but I must pay homage to the quality of the handling of this mix. It comes across as crisp and superbly delivered; 1:50-2:15 are emblematic of how on top of the delivery the remixer is. Everything is purposely executed and delivered, with creativity (through multiple subsections) to boot. Style differences need not hamper a nod to the impressive skillset shown here.

It's an original, fake RPG song by that person Liontamer linked, M.S. As the animation says at the bottom, the title is just "An Encounter." Archived download: http://web.archive.org/web/20051226105149/http://sgd.sakura.ne.jp/mus/ms_88_enc.mp3

The MAGFest schedule has gone live in the Guidebook app for iOS. The app is obviously on Android too, but some of my old buddies in the Metroid Metal community mentioned last night that something is buggy about the schedule on that side, as an advance warning. I imagine it will be fixed pretty soon. OP post has been updated with the OCR panel names and times. If anything else happens event-wise (like, say, a last minute OCU Spring Break dance party in someone's room or something), I'll continue to edit the post as necessary. Nine days to go! GET HYPE

Turned out to be a nice album this year. We had some familiar faces involved this time, but we also had a new face or two taking part. Gotta say a big "thanks" to everyone who both tried to get something done, and to those who did. Hope everyone enjoys what we did this year

Hi! If by strings you meant the stab synth (which sound more like brass than strings IMHO), I think you have a good start by using a saw (not detuned) with an almost open filter, and maybe a really short enveloppe on the cutoff of a lowpass filter (fast attack, from everything cut to almost nothing cut). For the bells, try a square in high pitch with a "percussive" volume enveloppe (i.e. instant attack, long decay and release, no sustain). Add delay and/or reverb and play with the filters to adjust your sound (keep in mind you want a brillant sound so try not to touch the highs). You may or may not want to add a saw or a triangle in the mix to add some spectral information (but mixed lower). You seem to struggle with sound design, which is a difficult and critical part of music creation (making the perfect sound from scratch, or just copying an existing sound). If you want to learn more about synth sound design, may I suggest you try Syntorial? The software itself is rather costly (around $130), but the free demo (including a lot of lessons) may give you some basic understanding of the key parts of a classic substractive synth (oscillators, filters, enveloppes, etc..). I found this software to be really interesting. I did not buy it though, so I don't know exactly how much you can learn if you do spend some money for it. I hope I could be of some help! And sorry for the bad english, it's not my mother tongue. Edit: Typo