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Yesterday I received the full album eval from staff. If you're an artist on the album, you should have received it in your inbox. The good news is that we're on track for release later this month. Even better is that we still have a bit of time to make the album even better than it already is Anyway, stay tuned!

Hi! My first post in the workshop. I just finished (I think) some kind of electro-horror-funk-ish remix of the Eerie forests song from the old Amiga game Shadow of the beast. How does it sound to you? Youtube: Here is the original:

So key things we'd like to have addressed Make the panel faster. (Heck maybe I'll try my hand at judge ) Scrutinize "Yes" votes a bit more thoroughly. AKA: Make judge queue progress panel more visible and transparent (Jorito added) There are indeed some valid criticisms toward OCR that don't necessarily stem from whiny-bitch, bitter rejects. mew hew Encourage people to have nice write-ups about their intentions and choices for their track and have the judges read and consider said write-ups; instead of ignoring them and casting them as garnish (not saying you guys DO that, but just as a caveat). Re-evaluate the bar and see if some areas can be slackened ever so slightly. Baby steps Reconsider putting links to the panel decision-page-thing in the event of a NO. Anything else I missed? (my ill-advised rant a few days back) (did some edits to sound less cave-man crazy) I risk whatever small reputation I have here, but I've got an admittedly emotionally driven protest to make. The language is crass and I apologize ahead of time for that, but I'm legit upset here. I still want to take part at OCR's community, and I'm very much aware of what this could cost me, but I feel this needs to be addressed. Y'know what, I barely detected any issues here. I don't have the *best* recording equipment but I think that "Eerie Forests" deserves a more lenient second pass. This is brilliant work!!. I decided to edit out the wording that resided in this very spot, because it was frankly, stupid. Sorry for over9000 edits, I'm not in a good state, but I know that my heart is in the right place. Please read thoroughly. "Eerie Forests" is a brilliant track!! Way to hive-mind it and say that it's "Too repetitive", as if that were some real deal-breaker. That only applies when the stuff that's being repeated sucks. But this doesn't suck. I'm sorry OCR, but I resent your decision to NO this. This turdy decision comes off as way too cliquey and hive-mind-ish for me. I've let a lot of bullshit pass, but I gotta stand my ground here. Anyone else care to join the discussion? EDIT2 + stuff (fuck I hate it when I can't articulate my words properly, it's the curse of ADHD and anxiety....) The judging system, in general, I think is just a little counter productive (not having a lot of new faces hurts), and throwing newbies into the NO-woodchipper is just plain evil man. And entirely defeats the purpose of being an open community - or at least a community what has one door shut the entire time on what would otherwise be a double-fucking-door-of-inclusiveness. God, I sound like a fucking SJW here, but have some sense, all ye hard-liners of OCR. Loosen the requirements a little, be more friendly to the new people. It won't hurt the website! Like, I'm not saying go ahead and say YES to (most) of my shit, that stuff's rushed and brick-wall-sounding half the time, but c'moooon. Slacken the rules a bit. God!! Okay, RANTING done. I love y'all. Peace out.

Overwatch fans! So I definitely created an EDM Remix featuring Genji's "I Need Healing" phrase! This has my own vocals as well. I guess its an original/game remix. I also created a lyric video for it! Hope you enjoy!

I think the standards of what a track needs to bring in order to be posted on the homepage has also grown over the years. If you look back at earlier mixes, quite a few of them wouldn't be posted these days. So the quality standards have evolved as the musicians making the music (and the easy access and sheer quality of today's music software and knowledge) have grown. Which I think is a good thing. It's probably also a really tricky balance to define where that low threshold of quality should be. Put it too high, and you end up discouraging newer remixers (even though some might meet it as a game to match and try and beat; I know I did!). Put it too low, and you end up discouraging those musicians who are further along on their musical journey and want to be in a community with people with similar level. Uniting those 2 contradicting positions might actually be impossible. And maybe you shouldn't. Having the jury and some barrier on getting posted on the homepage does alleviate it to something of a kind of Champions League, if you will, and also makes it a kind of special event. I know I always look forward to getting mixposted. Anyway, it might not be a bad idea to expand this Champions League with a Premier League and maybe even a First Division kind of thing, with a lower threshold. You could for example consider remixes that are being evaluated in the Workshop and getting a pass from the mods there to be in a separate list of their own (the Premier League) and maybe a First Division kind of thing for the tracks that get a NO, resub mark from the panel. Not a new idea, because this is actually pretty similar to the next goal on OCR's Patreon page. And yes, judges just being human will mean that sometimes their subjective opinions will be a pain, and yes, they will nitpick about stuff you might feel different about. But copy/paste is something I would tend to agree on with them; this is a remixing community, not a copy/paste community. Show your creative chops, that's the whole point. That creativity extends to getting whatever stuff you have to sound good, without requiring you to have all the fancy sample libs and synths. That kind of production work is not everybody's cup of tea (I cheat by using these fancy sample libs and synths if I feel like it), but don't let "I don't have fancy thing X" be an excuse for being lazy at it

Basically, their is a remix called "big bad koopa dubstep" that was a direct post by DJP back in 2011. There was a big argument about whether or not it was really up to OCR standards. Even on YouTube, it's the most negatively-rated remix I'm aware of coming from this community. Keep in mind I don't really have any dog in this hunt, but: If I were to make any suggestion, it would be that j00jment of remixes should be more about whether or not the track is close enough to modern production standards (using quality sounds) and composition/arrangement standards to be acceptable to listeners and not whether not it fits the "OCR philosophy" so to speak. I know this will sound like it has a douchey tone to it, but trust me; it's just because of the cold lack of emotion text has and my rather crass way of wording things =P For example, From Gario: Nobody cares about what the judge's "tastes" are; they should not be a factor as much as possible and the number of people who will care about 22 seconds being copy-pasted in electronic music will be close to zero when it's out there in the world. From Mindwanderer: Here is a top-20 charting, funky electronic track used in countless video games, films, trailers, etc. which has way more than a third of it being copy-pasta repetition. What's good for the masses isn't good enough for OCR, though? Please. There is clearly a riser that leads up to the end and there are no shortage of similar tunes that end exactly like this or otherwise with an abrupt ending and it hasn't harmed platinum sales. The track doesn't need EQ; it needs superior part-writing to get rid of the clutter, could probably benefit from some more "modern" sounds, harder-hitting drums and more low end. Where I'm going with this? None of this track's shortcomings seem like dealbreakers and I don't think it's any skin off OCR's ass if it were just approved. Instead, it's rejected and the mixer will have to go back and try to remold it the way you want it and wait probably a year or more before they find out if they must wait another year to see it on your YouTube channel. You may as well have just approved it: I'm certain there would be no shortage of people who enjoy it, it would encourage the mixer to continue mixing for the site, and whatever shortcomings it has aren't going to sully OCR's standards and reputation. You've approved a whole lot worse.

Sorry to hear that, man. Depression suuuuucks

Heh, in my mind eval and judging (in this context) are pretty similar; you get feedback from a critical listener that shares their opinion on the piece whether or not it's OCR-postable quality. Anyway, I get your point and distinction. I have no gripes with eval, apart from not using it myself often enough and moreso for not giving enough feedback in the workshop myself. And fair is fair, you guys did start a convo about it.

First, let's not confuse the terms evaluation and judging. Judging requires at least three people voting, and takes a lot longer, because those works are final when released. Eval usually takes one overworked and underappreciated person, concerns works in progress (that are considered finished for the time being, when eval is used correctly), and is at most indicative of how the judges might vote, never a guarantee. Second, by all means, discuss judging, discuss eval. Identify problems, suggest solutions. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one concerned about that stuff. Can't speak for the judges, but when it comes to eval, I think I'm allowed to say we've started a conversation about improving it.

Sounds to me like their rejection was justified by their usual standards. It's not about whether or not it "sounds bad"; it's about whether or not it sounds the way the judges want it to and in varying degrees of accordance to the site's ideals. It's argued that this is about quality assurance — which I'm sure it is, to a large extent — but personal bias absolutely plays a part because it does in literally anything that is put before a panel of judges. Nobody should take approval or rejection from OCR seriously, IMO. That being said, I don't see why people bother to submit at all when it takes over a year to get evaluated and by that time, the user has either moved on and improved or given up; kind of defeats the purpose of providing useful feedback to n00bz so they can get approved. You may as well just post it on soundcloud or YouTube yourself. "But not as many people will hear it!" — maybe, but I don't see why anyone cares about being a celebrity VGM-remixer; if there even is such a thing. Lastly, to give an example of where I think the problems lie: A few months ago, a remix I did with Timaeus for Metroid's anniversary got approved. It had been so long that I forgot we even did the mix. Long story short: Tim was in a bit of a bind since he was off to grad school and at the time, he was the only one of us with a proper string library (I've since acquired CS2). Admittedly, the strings didn't sound great and all of the judges pointed it out. For most people, those dodgy strings would've been a no-go and got them a "Resub". I mean, you'd think that two guys who have two previously approved collabs with the one member having many, many mixes on the site that such a mistake should be inexcusable, right? That's my only criticism — aside from the wait time, but people have lives — of the how the panel works: It's long been my observation that "established" remixers are often shown more leniency in fuck ups than noobs are when it should be the other way around. But then, some of you may remember the Big Bad Koopa Dubstep controversy of '11.

Despite the mad man rave you do here, I do have to admit that said remix ain't bad. Wasn't feeling the ending, but that would be the biggest remark I'd have. Whether or not it's deemed postable is ultimately up to the judges, because that's how this community works, take it or leave it. While I do agree that this whole eval process (and the time it takes) can be daunting for newcomers, it also guarantees a good base level, and -if you're patient enough to wait for it- the feedback is usually (meant) constructive and you can use it to learn and grow as a musician. At least, that's how I always approached it. Sure, I don't always agree with the evals I get (especially if it ain't positive :P), but in stead of getting butthurt I just keep in mind that these are just opinions of people that are good at critical listening and that they mean well. Using this thread for a _constructive_ discussion on judge/eval improvements would be interesting tho. My pet peeve is that eval takes a looong time and happens somewhat in a black box (I'm looking at you, 'Currently in eval' thread), both things that are tough sells in this age of instant gratification. $0.02.

Hmm, I don't hear anything really bad in this. SoundCloud's quality limits it a bit and garbles the high end, but in a proper WAV format this should sounds alright.

Yep, that's me.

The page is now live! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludomusicology Should be a decent start, and it's been up for several days without being deleted this time

When i was a kid i played Batman on the Nes. I made it to the boss several times, but i wasn't able to beat the Joker and finally gave up. A more recent example: A few months ago I bought Shovel Knight, i actually finished the regular game but i wanted to beat the new game + too. Unfortunately i failed at the part where you have to fight all the bosses again.

I gave up on Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions. It's sad to say, but I'm willing to bet that game isn't really all that difficult. I was playing it on the Wii, though, so the controls weren't helping. If I had an opportunity to play it on a regular controller, then perhaps I could get through it.

Not difficult, the opposite, but MVC: Infinite Tried the demo for it today My god that game is crap. Horrible graphics, same awful MVC3 high-contrast artstyle, looks like a port, gameplay is extremely dumbed down, only two characters instead of 3, atrocious voice acting, cringiest story I've ever seen, 1-button super combos, 1-button normal combos, and already the worst roster in the history of the genre. First time I've ever rage quit a game just because it sucks so bad. They're going to charge 74.99 for this shit.

Oh cool, you did indeed submit it. Glad to see that! ... Ack, my fault on this, but I completely missed this on my mod review for this: the sections 0:18 - 1:36 & 1:36 - 1:54 sound almost like a direct repeat, with a lot of it being straight copy pasta, there. There are some small variations to separate the two (some doubling at a few points, one or two extra textures in the background, etc.), but for the most part the track repeats itself nearly verbatim, which is a fairly large no-no. I feel terrible for this since I SHOULD'VE caught this in the mod review, but I think that might actually cause some issue on the panel. Give some more variation between the two sections, making the second section worth listening to when the audience already heard it the first time and we'll have an easy pass on this, though. I feel kind of terrible for missing that on my mod review, since that's, y'know, kind of my job, here. I suggest making those adjustments and sending a version that's improved to the inbox, since I suspect that'll be a deal breaker on this. Again, my apologies for failing to catch that upon my first review. Well, at least you won't have to wait long on the panel for further responses to it.

Thanks for the comments. I've made some adjustments and will send to to the judges soon.

Not only you picked a legendary game/soundtrack, but also hey, this mix is pretty neat. The synth funk tag caught my attention, and I think the mix delivers on the tag. Gario gave pretty good feedback, but I'll also add to watch your lows and crowding on the bottom end. I think the mix could be cleaner than it is, so mix clarity is an aspect that could benefit from work, specially around 2:50. The eq in general could perhaps be slightly brighter, but that could be subjective. The ending could've been a bit more memorable as well, another area to look into. Overall this is pretty solid and you could do a few more passes to it, but I definitely suggest subbing it. Good luck.

Thanks, glad to hear it! Yeah, those two parts were even messier a couple of drafts ago so maybe I can blame mix fatigue. Trimming it down further would require killing off another couple of darlings. I'll see if I can bring myself to do it

MOD REVIEW: Loving that source, there. I've never heard any of the music from that game, but it's catchy as all hell. It seems that your arrangement really catches the spirit of that source and takes it to new places with those synths and jazz flute. I'm liking what I hear a lot. It really sounds like one of those old school PS1 game soundtracks, and I'm digging every second of it. Since you asked about the flute specifically, I'll reassure you and say it's pretty well done. At worst, I'd say it's just a little too heavy on the decorative trills, but that's more a personal gripe than something that's legitimately wrong with it. It's mixed well, the performance is solid and it gives the arrangement as a whole a completely different (but still welcome) feel to it. The biggest issue that I can recognize is the crowding that happens at 1:32 and 2:49 due to the stacking of reverb-heavy instruments. It would probably sound better with one less line playing in there, or if the reverb were decreased a bit at those points, but overall it not a crushing issue. If you could clean that up prior to submission that would certainly be ideal, though. Yeah, if you submit this you'd probably get a little flak on the two messy sections I mentioned, but it'd probably still pass just fine. It's pretty darn good, overall, so I hope to see it in the inbox soon!

Specifically, I'm wondering how the flutes sound to you? Those are the only parts of the track with actual recorded instruments.

I'm afraid Super Mario Odyssey may go on this list for me. One of the moons is locked behind a jump-rope minigame that I'm finding just impossible. You need to jump 100 times, and I've tried on and off for at least half an hour and my record is 56. I understand there's some sort of volleyball minigame later on that's even harder. So I may be looking at a personal maximum of 798/800 moons, and if I know for sure there's even one I can't get, I probably won't bother with some others if they start looking to be tedious.

Not currently. I'm a past sufferer, and hopefully never again. Thanks though

Man, I've never even come close to beating Zelda 2. The part I consistently quit at was the first dungeon actually because of the platforming, with instant death pits?? With how stiff the jumping and handling is?? I would actually kinda kill for a good, still 2D, remake of Zelda 2. It's this fascinating mix of stuff that got majorly used in later games (village names used as sage names in OoT, some bosses also show up in OoT), and out-there stuff just thrown by the wayside (the entire level up system). I'd love to experience its historical value as a game that I'd actually want to play without wanting to throw my controller through my TV.

That didn't go very well, no. Am I supposed to change stuff and resub? Or does that only apply when the judging thread clearly says "resub"?