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OC ReMix is neither dying nor becoming irrelevant. We get plenty of submissions, lots of listeners, and tons of engagement on social media. Also, don't try to back up your point by speaking for other people who "wish to remain anonymous." There's absolutely zero value in saying something like that. Make your own points and back them up. We're not going to dump curation. It's just not going to happen. OC ReMix has been very clear about being a curated catalog of arrangements that meet a standard of both artistic interpretation and technical execution. We have never—and I can't believe that this has to be said again—claimed to be the end-all-be-all source of VGM arrangements, and we're not trying to be. We've consistently supported other communities and initiatives like DoD and Materia Collective. OC ReMix can afford to be selective; we've built up a catalog of quality arrangements over the course of nearly 18 years by setting some standards and pushing artists to hone their skills. Our philosophy at OCR has always been "share your music, get feedback, and make your music better." You'll be hard-pressed to find any other art community that does that. Getting a track posted to the front-page is a soft goal that fosters that growth. There are obviously instances where an artist will disagree with those standards and make an exit, or honestly just outgrow the process altogether because they've found their artistic voice and don't need to take part in the loop anymore. That's fine. We have no problem with people who decide OCR isn't for them anymore. There are plans in place to integrate the workshop deeper into the site's game database so that people can find WIPs and non-posted releases by browsing game pages. But OC ReMix will continue to examine and curate submissions from the community against our established standards because having that goal in place improves artists. We're comfortable with where those standards are and comfortable about the direction the site is taking.

On the thought of communities who don't have bars, they do have coffee shops. I'm part of a small community that is growing and attempting to establish itself. It will remain unnamed. I'm doing some arranging for them, but mostly just being a brass player recording for people (I guess that describes my involvement in many communities at the moment). They have a bar, kind of, but it's really low. I was used to OCR and the way they did things, came to this new one, and recorded for a guy. I knew I wasn't the only one recording, but what ended up happening in that track was just playing all the recordings as they were sent on top of each other. It sounded very weird because one of them was recorded in a tiny room, and one in a much bigger room. And those differences were really pronounced. There were a few tracks that were this level, and while it wasn't bad, it was very unrefined and unpolished. On the other end, it still is kind of weird that there will be check ins on progress and for the most part, people won't start their tracks until a week or less before deadline, and the end result sounds like they threw it together last minute. However, it will still be sent out. The majority of this community is producing good, well polished content, but there is that lower end that just seems to be winging it constantly and still passing the bar. OCR I don't see as a gated community tho. I see it more as a community that wants to present well polished works of a certain variety. It's not that you have to pass the bar to be considered good, it's more like there's a certain type of production that is wanted.

On another news the Judge Process thread has been updated thanks to @Nutritious. I'll try to keep it updated again.

I'm a little late to the party here, but here's my two bits. (Gee, Hoboka, you must be ready to start a small business with all the change you have off this thread ) IMO, there is nothing currently wrong with OCR's panel. The OCR submission guidelines are fairly good at laying out what OCR expects from submissions for posting; of course, like any organization, they have certain subjective expectations (genre, precedent, etc.) for the material they choose to endorse and it is up to them to determine whether it fits their standard or it doesn't. If you want something posted here, you have to play by their rules, period - and if their standard doesn't fit yours, there are lots of other places you can go to advertise or show off your music. Likewise, as ACO implied, just because you're rejected by OCR doesn't immediately mean to the world "YOU SUCK" or "FO" or "we don't like your kind here" - it just means it doesn't currently fit OCR's standard. Some folks might be aware that I had a project I'm working on rejected by OCR in the not-too-distant past; sure, some of the things said stung and perhaps I didn't agree with all the feedback, but these are simply folks telling me where the tracks are and what is needed to bring them closer to the standard - so I could have chosen to pack my ball up and go home, but I've chosen to continue the project (despite some absences due to life stuff) and use the feedback to improve the album. I've also had folks reach out to me to offer help and advice if necessary in light of the rejection, which is one of the things I love most about this site. 'No skill in mixing? No problem, let's ask ___ for some help. No good string samples? No problem, let's see if ___ has an opening in their schedule. No good distortion pedals for your guitar? No problem, let's see if ____ has the sound you're looking for.' This community is full of folks who want to help and they are NOT hard to find. Personally, I'm fine with the standard and I don't care how long it takes for the panel to review - I respect the time it takes for judging, I respect the opinion of the panel, accept that it is an opinion, and use it as an indicator of where my tracks are and where they need to go to fit that standard. Given Gario's comment on repetition that started this whole thing, has anyone thought to just add a bit of variation in harmony, bass, percussion, or maybe all three? Or, if you're attached to the repetition, asked Gario how you could keep the copy pasta but add enough variation to be accepted by judges? I just think it's pretty clear what wait time was expected and what the reasons for rejection were, so maybe the solution is to address the concerns and resubmit instead of jumping on the judges for how they do what they do. Plus, if you don't want to wait for the panel, I'm sure either Gario or Rozovian would be willing to take a look at things in shorter order to give you an idea of how it would go on the panel. Heck, I'm sure there's lots of other folks reading this willing to give you a hand too, if that's what you think you need. I don't know how much easier they could make it for us. Just my opinion. Another wall of text for the, er, wall.

I did some casual polling of some (a very small set of) non-musician people that do like their video games, and the key take aways were 'they always have awesome remixes', 'that is where I learned remixing videogame music was a thing' and in general that it's cool and people tend be followers for a long time already. So I wouldn't say it's dying or becoming irrelevant. Sure, VGM remixes and covers are a big thing these days, and with all these other parties doing VGM stuff nowadays, it makes sense that OCR stands out less than it used to do way back when OCR was one of the few communities doing such things. I think there's enough space in the VGM world for all these initiatives, all with their different angles and interpretations. I never dabbled in DoD because I am too lazy to learn to actually play an instrument, but I am doing a remix for a non-OCR album this month and I am also looking into Materia Collective. For the latter, there might not be an explicit bar, but I do know there's a proposal + approval process there too, and judging by the albums released they also have a QA process for stuff that makes it on the albums. Anyway, maybe it's time to accept that OCR is doing its own thing and is what it wants to be, not what you think it should be. Sure, constructive criticism is good and should be welcomed. Eagerly awaiting, almost pleading for DJP for a veto and a course correction of this perceived Titanic seems pretty fatalistic to me though. Chill, dude. It's good that you care so much, but you might wanna reconsider your tone and approach if you really want to have a solid constructive discussion.

All of these people have bars. Also Gamechops, tinywaves, etc. They all have bars, they don't publish anything and everything that they get sent. They just aren't as transparent about them, which is their prerogative.

Right, but that's just for licensing the music. The permission to raise funds via Kickstarter is, at least according to some, a separate cost/right entirely, since it's not a fixed price-per-track licensing - backers can (and do) contribute more, for other types of benefits... @GSO Grand plans usually require enthusiastic participants/collaborators, and you'll get more of those when you have a track record of successful projects, whether free or commercial. So yes, to echo what's been said several times, it feels like you're starting very large, and that your energies would be more productively directed at building up the type of successes that would lead to being able to put something like this together more effectively.

When I joined the panel, the wait time for a sub to appear on the queue was about a year and a half. Yes, If you submitted your song today, the ETA for it to arrive at the queue would be around spring 2019. This year around july / august, if you submitted your song there was a good chance it would get on the queue (and possibly out of it) that very same week. So yeah, it's a bit faster now. I took this process over from Larry because the thread has been a personal grudge for me for years, since it usually went without updates for months when the queue was ridiculously long. I used to update it weekly or more often but since we had reached parity with the inbox (and I have too many responsibilities this year) I stopped updating it, since things are a bit slower now (the most recent mix on the queue is from around mid october) I'll try to update it again. This thread is a pain in the ass to update though, takes a considerable amount of time, so yeah. This has been a topic of discussion internally and is brought up a lot. To make this process visible it requires a better submission process and integration with the site. This is a major project which requires, you guessed it, a lot of time to implement, free time from the staff. I know you're perfectly aware of all of this but a lot of people, perhaps understandably don't see the amount of time that is put on the site behind the scenes to keep it running, release projects, work on evaluations, implement forum features, organize panels, etc. I personally would love to see this whole process to be updated, but it's not happening overnight with the current resources we have. I was very surprised by this as well, I thought we were rejecting far more than we were passing. But after thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. The bar has been around the same place for about a decade now, and it has become increasingly easier to make good music. I remember the FL compo mentioned by Larry, and at the time this compo was made, FL and most DAWs used to come with very poor quality samples and the tools they came with were pretty vanilla and basic (3xosc, i.e.). Compare that to the current FL studio which comes with many more powerful tools out of the box, plus a more comprehensive sample library of better quality. Same with other DAWs like Reason, Ableton etc. You can get Reaper nowadays for free/cheap, grab a bunch of high quality free synths/effects/samples and get going without spending a dollar.

Honestly, you seem to have a great many of grand plans, but none pan out — just my observation. Perhaps you should take a moment to consider that the legal hurdles and the costs involved in producing a CD of video game remixes when no one even buys CDs anymore is a lofty goal that should maybe not be pursued further. I also don't see why one would want to do this when OCR produces FF albums pretty regularly that get tons of promotion, lots of listeners, etc. Why not just get on one of those or try and start up one? So yes, I think you're going about it the wrong way and dreaming to big compared to what you've proven you can do. Start small.