Leaderboard

I tried to keep this brief, but as you might know, that's not my forte. FIRST, the facts... On October 28th I informed staff that I was stepping down from my role as president/admin/owner/etc. of OverClocked ReMix, and on November 1st I also stepped down from the board of Game Music Initiative, the 501c3 non-profit organization that funds OCR. In short, I no longer feel I have the bandwidth to do these roles justice and to not only maintain, but advance, the missions of both projects. I will be working with Shariq Ansari (DarkeSword) to transition my responsibilities and ensure continuity of operations. The (excellent!) mix posted on Halloween was published without my direct involvement, subsequent posts up to the milestone #OCR04500 have been superbly executed, and I am confident that staff will continue the work necessary to operate - and evolve - OCR in my absence. I will be even less available than I have been, lately, so I apologize in advance for any lack of responsiveness. THEN, the feels... Where to even begin? It's hard to encapsulate over two decades of history; omissions are inevitable. What began as a neat side project I started in my parents' basement in 1999 snowballed into something far beyond my wildest expectations, due to the blood, sweat, tears, and unbridled, rampant creativity that thousands of you have contributed. Much of this happened before social media was even a thing and before the platforms/services we now heavily associate with the modern internet had come into being; it was a frontier, and we were on it, and we took it pretty seriously because we knew how amazing VGM is, how creative arrangements could effectively convey and explore that vast musical landscape, and how a small fandom communicating via email, IRC, & forums could collaborate to build mighty, new things. We took it seriously, often too seriously, but we ALSO played more than a few rounds of Shaq-Fu at conventions, made some truly ridiculous (but always musical!) joke mixes, and developed internal circles of lore with our own memes & jargon. NOT in strictly chronological order: there was some drama with now-legendary composer Jake Kaufman; VGMix entered the fray; we added a judges panel so it wasn't just me making stuff up; we released our first community album; the unmoderated forum birthed its own sort of... subculture; the site itself evolved to be database-driven and not just two giant dropdowns sorted by game/date; we posted mixes submitted by composers George "The Fat Man" Sanger and Jeremy Soule; we met/interviewed Hiroki Kikuta and Nobuo Uematsu; our album trailers by the incomparable José the Bronx Rican started blowing minds; we started appearing in person at Otakon, PAX, MAG, others - much love to all for having us; we bumped into Leeroy Jenkins at ROFLcon and gave him a hoodie; we started hosting from our own server and managing the technical side of things ourselves; thanks to Mr. Shael Riley (among others!), we got to remix the music for an actual Street Fighter game (!!); we released fifteen more albums... ...and then we turned ten, on December 11th of 2009. Quite a first decade, and I missed hundreds of things I shouldn't have. Hundreds of firsts, some tragic lasts, and millions of memories that can't quite be conjured by words. In 2011, we stood up for Fair Use at World’s Fair Use Day, an event organized by the non-profit Public Knowledge. In 2012, we launched our kickstarter for Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin, it was taken down, we talked with Square lawyers directly for a couple hours and made the non-profit project structure clear & contractual, and we relaunched a successful kickstarter. That's not always how those things go! We launched Game Music Initiative in 2016, creating an official 501c3 charity to formalize the finances around OCR and potentially support other VGM-related projects, too. On a related note, I’ve absolutely loved seeing OC ReMixes featured by charity speedrunners Games Done Quick (GDQ) - it’s exactly the type of thing I always wanted to see, that synergy. Things do start getting a little quieter from then on out, and I think there are a ton of reasons for that, but it has been an incredible and improbable journey that I wouldn't have missed for the world. Thank you ALL for making it possible; OCR was always yours, I aspired only to stewardship of something I wanted to exist for everyone. FINALLY, the future… It's time - some would say past time - for OverClocked ReMix itself to be ReMixed. That's the point, right? Infinite permutation; endless possibility. You don't always know the day, month, or even year when your influence on something starts holding it back, or when the waning amount of time and energy you can dedicate becomes a liability. That type of certainty is often elusive; it can be a difficult diagnosis to even contemplate, and you need to look for & listen to signs. In addition to just being too much of a single point of failure for OCR (sorry, engineering mindset), the last year I've been asking myself whether it was time to let go, and I think the answer is sometimes in the asking. I have been stretched thin, like butter scraped over too much bread, and that's when you leave the Shire. Beyond representing what I genuinely believe is best for the future of OCR, I absolutely confess a personal wish to redirect reclaimed time & energy to my family and my own music. Being a husband to my wife Anna and being a father to our daughters Esther and Sarah is my meaning; I have always put them first, but now I can put them even MORE first. Esther just started learning trombone, so in a few years, expect a collab! Sarah is building her confidence learning piano & makes me proud every day. I want to write new music for them, and with them, and that requires more time than I've had. I believe the principles that have driven us - embracing all games & all styles of music, emphasizing interpretation & creativity, offering both curation and critique, and providing a non-commercial platform for those who seek it - are truly timeless, but there are many ways to honor them. I look to the new leadership/staff to galvanize, streamline, diversify, and re-imagine, within that immense space. I'll be leaving them with some ideas of my own; please let them know yours. I ask the community to support them, embrace change, provide guidance, and be patient; I believe it will be worth it! Thanks, - djpretzel

Well it's been about a week or two, so as the new guy in charge, I figure I ought to say something, right? When djpretzel started the process of handing over the keys to the family car, I have to admit I was pretty overwhelmed. OCR is one of the oldest and most rock-solid sites on the internet; I've often said that we're older than YouTube, older than smartphones, and older than a lot of things on the internet that, by virtue of their ubiquity, feel like institutions. OCR is an institution. There's a lot of weight in those keys. So what am I going to do with OCR now that I'm in the driver's seat? In the short term: keep driving. Our main goal is going to be continuity; that is to say, keep posting ReMixes on a regular basis. We've got a pretty big backlog of ReMixes that are ready for the spotlight, and our excellent and talented community continues to send us new music all the time, so we're not worried about running out. But there sure is a lot of behind-the-scenes process involved with getting these tracks in your ears, so bear with us while the staff--with djpretzel's help--figures all of this out. I still believe that there's a case to be made for the curation model that we've developed and adhered to for 20+ years, so we're still going to have a Judges Panel that's going to evaluate submissions, and the bar for quality that the judges look for isn't shifting in any direction. One of our goals in this changeover is to decentralize a lot of process off of one person. djpretzel did a lot on his own, and as we look at some things behind-the-scenes, maybe he didn't have to. I want OCR to be a place that can be run by a trusted group of people without a single point-of-failure. Case-in-point: literally one week after I take on leadership at OCR, my 8-month-old son brings home COVID from somewhere and gets the whole house sick, and we're having OCR staff meetings and figuring out how to post ReMixes while I'm coughing up a lung. Unbelievable. So I'm also hoping to bring more people onto the OCR staff. I've already pulled in some folks from the community, and we're going to figure out how to provide avenues for more people to help out if they're interested. Keep an eye out. Beyond that though, I've got a couple of ideas for improvements and features that have been brewing for a while that I'm going to start to pursue, leveraging some existing tech we already have and also exploring some new tech. For those that are unaware, my day job is working as a web and application developer at a major university. It's something I've been doing for 15 years and I have a pretty solid handle on building database-driven web applications. I'm going to bring a little of that experience to OCR, and hopefully we can eventually have some cool toys and tools in place to help move the site forward. Some things to look forward to: I've already put together a Currently in the Judging Process dashboard for ReMixers and hopefuls to keep an eye on. It's a live view of the judging process without having to wait for a Judge to update a forum thread. We're actively developing and testing a proper Submission form for ReMixers and hopefuls to use when sending us music. We've been asking you to send us an email for far too long. That's going to change. We've put together a "stream team" to evaluate how we can do more with our YouTube channel and even get things going on Twitch in some capacity. There are a lot more things we're talking about internally as well, but I don't want to over-promise anything right now. If you have ideas for OCR, feel free to share them in our Site Issues & Feedback forum. I'd also love for folks to come by and join our OC ReMix Discord server. I know the forums have been pretty sleepy for a few years now, but the chat server is lively and active. Hope to see you there.

The Judges Panel has been talking about ways to work through the queue of submitted remixes at a faster pace, and after a lot of discussion and weighing the pros and cons, we've come to a decision that's probably one of the biggest adjustments to our process in a long time: Submissions no longer require four (4) YES votes to pass. A decision is reached as soon as the difference in votes is three (3). To clarify the key change here: when a submission receives three (3) YES votes and there are zero (0) NO votes, the submission is accepted, because the difference in votes is three (3). If a submission continues to go back and forth without reaching +3 in either direction, the panel will continue to vote until all active judges have voted and the majority will determine the decision. This update to our decision making process will immediately apply to any submissions on the panel at the time of this announcement going live, and for all decisions moving forward. We won't be going back to previous rejections to find decisions that started with three (3) uncontested YES votes but eventually got rejected; in those cases, what's done is done. We hope that artists will find this new criteria a little bit easier to understand. Overall, we've been impressed with the quality of work being sent in these past months, and this should make it easier for us to get the slam dunk tracks through the process faster. Thanks to all the artists who continue to participate in our curation process. Hope to hear your work soon. - DarkeSword

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! OC ReMix = 25 YEARS OLD! 4,500 ReMixes later, video game music is STILL an art form! We've got a celebratory Zeal mix by JSABlixer from the upcoming anniversary album TimeShift, and we'll be doing lots more over the course of the next year to celebrate the creativity and impact of this powerful community! Thank you to everyone -- past, present, and future -- who have made OverClocked ReMix what it is. Please share some positive memories on how you discovered OCR, artists and tracks you love (original VGM OR ReMixes), let's go! :-D

I'm happy to announce a couple of staffing changes here at OCR. First up, I wanna welcome @Hemophiliac to our Judges Panel! Hemo's been putting in the work for the last few years as one of our Workshop Evaluators, and has also stepped up in the past few months to handle a lot of the visualizers for the remixes you see on our YouTube channel. He's an active presence in our community and has a lot of helpful advice in the Workshop. We're glad to add him to the panel. Look forward to getting some fresh new NO votes on your tracks! Speaking of Workshop Evaluators, a few months ago we retired our Ready for Review process in the Workshop because we felt that it was a cumbersome extra layer of evaluation prior to submitting to the Judge's Panel. Our Evaluators did a lot of great work over the years but we're retiring that role. In it's place, we're introducing our new team called Sages! Sages are active artists in our community who'll be in the Workshop giving feedback on remixes, posting tutorials, and coming up with their own ways to revitalize and energize the Workshop. Our three new Sages are @Xaleph, @pixelseph, and @paradiddlesjosh! We're glad to have some fresh faces on staff, and I'm personally looking forward to seeing what these folks have in store for us. -- DarkeSword

Happy New Year, everyone! Just wanted to check-in and let you all know that we've got a new submissions process for remixes. Since the inception of the site, we've been asking you to host your file somewhere and send us an email with a bunch of information about your remix. This has lead to a lot of headaches on both your end and our end, but now we're finally moving forward with a more modern method. Introducing the new Submissions Tracking page! We've used our forum software to build out a custom form where you can upload your track directly to us. This post will get a status and linked to a decision thread, and it also features a comments section where judges can communicate with you about issues with your remix. Submissions are private, so only you and the judges can see them. In the coming months we'll be retiring the old email method of submitting remixes with an auto-response that'll direct folks towards the new system. This new form, combined with our recently revamped Currently in the Judging Process dashboard, will help you keep tabs on your submissions. A big shout out to all of the ReMixers and Judges who helped me test out this new system. I've had ideas for years for turning our submissions and judging workflows into a fully integrated piece of software, and while the limitations of our forum software prevent us from hitting that goal 100%, this is a huge step in the right direction. I'm looking forward to hearing what you all are going to send us. ? — DarkeSword

I don`t know exactly what I want to say, and none of this is planed out, but I think its wild this place is still around. For one reason or another Ill check the remixes and get a wave of "the good old days" and not just from the music but this community, Which Ill admit, I was not super active, but from the time when I first came across it, I think maybe a TechTv show sent me this way? Its wild people are still mixing Aquatic ambiance, and it still puts a smile on my face. I remember the first album I watched get released was Kong In Concert, I burned it to a disc (mp3 cd players were so cool) and would listen to it in Algebra 1, perhaps its why took algebra one twice. I always wanted to be musical I would love to be able to contribute in that way. Thank you to everyone that still makes music for this community even If it gets said once or thousands of time it's very appreciated.

In the shadows, we stay busy. ;-) Joining us as a Sage, we now have @Treyt, who's shown off a lot of skills, enthusiasm, and potential since his fateful forum post nearly three years ago! We're proud to announce some staff promotions with the twin magic of Sages @pixelseph & @paradiddlesjosh stepping up to become two of our newest judges! We had some fun internally joking that they were a package deal, yet I'm happy to say they both independantly have done well and proven themselves capable to help us out in this new capacity on the panel! We've also honored to have another judges panel addition in @jnWake, who cut his teeth in OCR way back and has massively grown since becoming a Dwelling of Duels regular! All three of the new judges should help us NO every VGM arrangement submitted to us with more speed, politeness, and class. ;-D Be sure to use our resources in the Workshop forums and our #workshop Discord channel and you may just get some feedback from our new staffers!

This thing again? Yep. Another year, another album of various songs done up in a Christmasy style in multiple genres. There are 15 remixes for you enjoy this holiday season, making for just under an hour of tunage. And on behalf of everyone involved, thanks for listening and Merry Christmas. https://williammichael.info/aocc/

Hey all! Just some quick updates I wanted to let you all know about. Site & Forum Updates If you're an artist, your forum profile now includes a link to your artist page. This also shows up in your little profile box when you post threads. I've been doing a couple of small style and layout tweaks to forum listings in an effort to reduce some whitespace. Guidelines for certain forums have been moved out of the announcements module to the forum's internal rules setting. You'll see a relevant link on forums that have specific guidelines. I did a pass on forum profile fields and deleted a lot of obsolete data (like the field for your ICQ number!). There are a couple of new fields too, like Pronouns and Discord. Make sure you head over to your account settings and keep that profile updated! Tagging has been disabled on forum threads for regular members. We (the staff) weren't seeing a lot of sensical or consistent usage, so we're in the process of cleaning those up. We may revisit forum thread tags later with predefined options. The Ready to Review process in the Post Your Game ReMixes forum has been retired. It served us well for a couple of years but after a while we found that people were not engaging with it, and it felt like another bureacratic layer to the submission process. We've gone back to the older, more open-ended format where you can just post your remixes for feedback. A similar process in the Recruit & Collaborate forum has also been retired. Vote counts on submissions in the queue have been moved out of thread titles and into tags for the purposes of some internal tooling I'd like to try, so you won't see those anymore on the Currently dashboard and I worked on fixing how that data gets pushed to the dashboard, so you'll still see vote counts. Upcoming Events Do you have OPINIONS about REMIXES? Join us this Thursday at 8:30PM EST on Discord where we run the first-of-hopefully-many Review Bombs! We're going to get a listening party going for OC ReMixes that have gone the longest without having any reviews and rectify the situation. I've heard of Metroidvania, but METROID VERSUS VANIA?! This Friday, we're kicking off the second run of Game Set Mash!!, our long-form team-based remix competition. This run features music from two legendary franchises: Metroid and Castlevania, and two teams will compete to see who can make the best Metroidvania Mashups. They'll have two weekends to get their tracks done, so check back at the start of February and get your votes in! Speaking of competitions, I'd be remiss if I didn't shout-out the People's Remix Competition, which just ended a legendary 20 year run under the stewardship of @Bundeslang. I remember back when PRC started back in 2003 (!!) and it's been a rock solid staple of OC ReMix since then, with a lot of musicians in the community developing and honing their skills through their participation. Absolutely incredible work from everyone involved over these past two decades. Make sure you check out the thread for the last round! Well, that's all from me for now. I'm still getting a handle on how everything works and fits together here, but slowly-and-surely we're going to continue to inch OCR ever-forward. Thanks! - DarkeSword

And here we are yet again. Another year has passed and the latest AOCC is done and ready for consuming. For the moment, it's a link to my Dropbox. But once Dyne gets the site ready, I'll change it go there. From all of us who took part in the overclocking of Christmas this year, we all hope you enjoy the music https://williammichael.info/aocc/

good job everyone

Eighteen of these. Eighteen years. Holy shitballs, Batman! Another album is in the books. This year we have seven songs of various moods, genres and tempos, all set for everyone to listen to and as you get deep into the holiday spirit. While we wait for Dyne to update the site, I'll be hosting the zip file. Once he's done, I'll change the link here to go there. Make sense? Good. A big thanks to the remixers who joined up, and to Dyne for hosting these albums for yet another year. And on behalf of everyone involved, Merry Christmas! https://williammichael.info/aocc/

Starting today, the sharing of music generated by feeding a prompt into AI-software is prohibited on OC ReMix, both here on the forums and on our Discord. LLMs, AI, and other machine-learning technologies are both interesting and impressive, but the implementation of these technologies in popular usage rely largely on unethical training practices. Copyrighted works are used without artist consent to train commercial AI-models. Moreover, OverClocked ReMix has, over the course of over 20 years, established itself as a place for artists to learn about the composition and production of music and hone their craft. We ask artists to pay tribute to VGM through the art of interpretation; we're looking for the personal spin, the human touch. I, personally, don't believe audio generated by a machine-learning algorithm is doing that. There are ethical implementations of AI-technology in the music sphere, such as sample libraries, physical modeling software, and audio production suites that use machine-learning to perform complicated tasks that an artist can use in the production process. Sharing music that uses this kind of tech is absolutely fine. But tracks generated wholly or in-part by services like Suno and Udio (among others) do not belong here. And just to clarify, the discussion of machine-learning, LLMs, and AI here at OC ReMix is not prohibited, but should be tempered by an understanding of the goals of our community, which include artistic development and education and the appreciation of VGM through thoughtful exploration and interpretation. Thanks. -- DarkeSword

For the last time, it's results time Hopefully everything is counted correct (just added the voter bonus, assuming that nobody voted twice for the same song or for his own song, the winner is clear. The final last wooden spoons go to Evktalo, Silverpool64, BRKPNT, Jorito and (again) BRKPNT without any points. The 18th place is for both Sadorf and Treyt with two points. 8 Songs tie for 10th place: AlchemicJay, TheVodouQueen, Jorito, Wassup Thunder, Unknown Pseudoartist, (again) AlchemicJay, JH Sounds and AZPX with 3 points The 6th place is for Hemophiliac, Yami, Bundeslang and HoboKa with 4 points. The fourth place is for Souperion and HarlemHeat360 with 6 points. Third place is for TheVideoGamer with 7 points. XPZA got second place with 10 points. And the winner of PRC472 is Coloradoweeks with 23 points. Congratulations Coloradoweeks, even if I miscalculed half of the votes you are still in the winner of the final PRC round. Well deserved, and close to an unanimous win. You still may pick a source but it will not be used for a further PRC. You can send it to me by PM or just post it in this thread. Some followers might reward your win with a remix, or I might organise a special round somewhere in the future. Even tough Coloradoweeks is the winner of this round, I think we all have won this one. A fantastic amount of remixes resulting in the end of PRC. Big thanks to all remixers, voters and listeners, the OC Remix and ThaSauce Community http://sites.google.com/site/bambombim/prc for all rounds and winners. https://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/prc472 for the votes and comments. If anyone is interested in any old PRC songs, I have them somewhere so I can share them if there is any interest. Everything from PRC94 and later is at the ThaSauce site. This is the end of PRC, but not from my visits to OC Remix. I Will Return (but not as PRC host). Thank You

Hi @Bundeslang. First, I want to sincerely thank you for keeping PRC going for as long as you did. PRC was a huge part of my development as an artist in the early days of OCR along other older competitions like IMC and I made a lot of collabs and friends in these competitions. I am no longer making music, nor I am around online much but when I saw the email about this PRC being the last I had to jump in to salute and thank you and the oher artists. I would say the absolute best part of being part of the community by far were PRC and other compos. The constraints of the competitions I felt really helped me break out of some walls, and some of the remixes I made here both as sir_nuts and as showroom dummy made the jump to the front page. Again thank you and all of those who participated over the years. Hope you are doing great and wish you nothing but the absolute best in the future.

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Streets of Rage game and the other from an Etrian Odyssey game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 3 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for Round 3. Streets of Rage vs. Etrian Odyssey II The Last Soul Labyrinth IV - Petal Bridge [Dungeon: 16F-20F] Streets of Rage 2 vs. Etrian Odyssey III Go Straight Labyrinth VI - Cyclopean Haunt Streets of Rage 3 vs. Etrian Odyssey Shinobi Reverse Labyrinth V - Lost Shinjuku [Dungeon: 21F-25F]

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Streets of Rage game and the other from an Etrian Odyssey game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 1 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for Round 1. Streets of Rage vs. Etrian Odyssey Fighting in the Street Labyrinth IV - Sandy Barrens [Dungeon: 16F-20F] Streets of Rage 2 vs. Etrian Odyssey II Never Return Alive Scene - Wings and Cherry Blossoms [Event: Ones with Wings] Streets of Rage 3 vs. Etrian Odyssey III The Poets II Cityscape - Between the Azure Sky and Sea You can also use this thread to leave comments about the tracks. Remember to be kind and constructive. Thanks for listening, and thanks for voting!

We don't have that much votes, so I give another week to vote. New and final voting deadline January 17th.

Welcome to the first ever Game Set Mash!!, a new team-based longform competition format for the OC ReMix community! Current Status Game Set Mash!! 1 has come to an end, with both teams earning 27 points by the end of the competition. Congratulations to everyone on such a close competition. Fantastic work. Music Round 1 Remix Pack Round 2 Remix Pack Round 3 Remix Pack Scoring Each submission is worth 2 points, and each victory is worth 2 point. A tie results in 1 point for each participant. The scores for Round 1 are as follows Team SNES - 3 submissions + 2 victories = 10 points. Team PSX - 3 submissions + 1 victory = 8 points. The scores for Round 2 are as follows Team SNES - 3 submissions + 1 victory + 1 tie = 9 points. Team PSX - 3 submissions + 1 victory + 1 tie = 9 points. The scores for Round 3 are as follows Team SNES - 3 submissions + 1 victory = 8 points Team PSX - 3 submissions + 2 victories = 10 points The total scores are as follows Team SNES - 27 points Team PSX - 27 points Team Rosters Team SNES: Yami, The Vodoú Queen, colorado weeks, Aeroprism, ZackParrish, Xaleph Team PSX: pixelseph, H36T, paradiddlesjosh, Emunator, Hemophiliac How does the competition work? Participating remixers will form 2 teams of at least 3 members each. Each team will be assigned a set of 3 games. The competition lasts 6 weeks, with week-long mixing rounds alternating with week-long voting periods. At the start of the mixing round, each team will choose and reveal 1 source tune from each of their 3 games. Each source will be paired with another source from the opposing team, for a total of 3 pairs. Each team will be responsible for writing 3 remixes for the week that combine (or mash) both source tunes in each pair. At the end of the mixing round, we'll upload the remixes and have a community vote. Voters will vote on the 3 remixes that did the best job of mashing the two source tunes together. Teams will accumulate a score based on how many of the community votes they win. In the next mixing round, we'll rotate which games get paired up with opposing games. What are the rules about teams? I want to make things easy and accessible for people to participate, so there's no maximum on team size, but I will be asking people to do their best to even out the teams once we have all of our participants signed up. Unlike previous competitions I've run, there's no rules about who has to be a primary arranger for a track from week to week. Teams will be free to organize and determine how each of the three remixes gets covered. Using your teammates for collaboration and feedback is highly encouraged. What are the games we're remixing? For the first GSM, one team will be SNES Final Fantasy games (FF4, FF5, and FF6) going up against a team for PSX Final Fantasy games (FF7, FF8, FF9). Almost any song from these expansive, legendary soundtracks is allowed, save for a few exceptions: specifically, songs that show up in both SNES and PSX games, like the Prelude or any variation of the Chocobo and Moogle themes. When your team is picking sources at the start of the remixing rounds, pick something unique to each game. This seems like it'll take a long time, when does it start? I'm aiming to gather interest here on the forums and in our Discord and I'd like to start in August, depending on if we can get some sizable teams. I would love to have around 6-7 people on each team to really get the spirit of collaboration going. I'm happy to answer any more questions. It's been about 4-5 years since we've done one of our bigger multi-round competitions. I'm hoping to see some new faces in the mix.

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Streets of Rage game and the other from an Etrian Odyssey game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 2 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for Round 2. Streets of Rage vs. Etrian Odyssey III My Little Baby Cityscape - Engrave Thy Name and Go Forth Streets of Rage 2 vs. Etrian Odyssey Alien Power Strife - Rapture [Normal Battle: Final Floor] Streets of Rage 3 vs. Etrian Odyssey II Ending Return of the Heroes [Ending 1]

Don't try to throw the OCR mission statement in my face and think that that somehow proves your point. Nowhere in that mission statement does it say that we need to treat all forms of music in the world equally, regardless of whether it was written by a person or generated by a machine-learning algorithm. That's not there. We are dedicated to the appreciation of and promotion of video game music as an artform. This has, for the last 25 years, meant recognizing that the composers who wrote music for video games created art. They are artists. They are human beings who made thoughtful decisions about the music they wrote. They created with intent. Can you use machine-learning tools to create artwork with intent? Sure. I pretty clearly stated in the announcement that I don't have a problem with machine learning as a technology, but that I don't want people to post music on OCR from services that trained their models on music that was not provided with consent from the artists who created that music. The technology is not the problem; the people building these services using resources they're not supposed to are the problem. These folks have not figured out how to build these services without plundering the collective creative works on the internet. No thanks.

I'm really excited - we have some cool stuff planned ahead!

It's a huge pleasure to be fulfilling this role! Over the coming weeks, you'll be seeing my mug replying to your posts in the workshop and (if I'm doing things right) I'll be providing you with means to make improvements to your writing, arranging, and/or mixing. Can't wait to hear more of what y'all have cooking out there!

This round is another hard one to vote! Both teams brought forth polished mixes and executed really creative ideas. Infected Waters: Psytrance heaven! The gated vocal, triplet transitions, and distinct sections make this a wonderful listen. The Bloody Tears motif from Purification comes through strongly even with the syncopated line, and the Maridia theme holds tightly throughout the piece. Pure Zebes: Enya vibes proudly on display! Despite having zero melodic correlation to it, this piece would feel right at home in RuneScape - I’m attributing that to the instrumentation (flutes and strings and pads over light percussion). Both themes are strong throughout; the 3/4 meter helps bring both ideas together. Livin' Out Our Last Days: It's Metroidvania but if the Gorillaz did it! I love nothing more in a mashup than taking the structure of one piece and applying the melodic and harmonic content of another to it, and this track does exactly that - Feel Good, Inc is clearly the template here. I'm hearing Overture in the "theme"/verse riff and Tallon in the choruses. The organic instruments (guitars, bass, and vocals) are well performed, and the mix is tight. Cruisin' Down Overture Blvd in the Depths of Tallon Traffic: Synthwave magic! That Tallon bassline rides through the whole piece and never once gets stale. Love the way the melody trades Overtune and Tallon back and forth, and the little chromatic splashes here and there keep the lead interesting. Smoke and Marbles: Live jazz club sound! Great mix on the quartet throughout - the lead trade between piano and guitar on the Marble Gallery theme is brilliant. Bass and drums hold the groove tight. Environmental Mystery as the bridge is another brilliant choice for such a short source. Gallery of Mysteries: Progressive metal time! Periphery and Tigran Hamasyan meet a sort of Darude vibe on the intro. Lots of time signature shifts for those wanting to count - 4/4, 5/8, 7/8, 5/16... math music nerds, get in the comments! Love the use of Environmental Mystery as the arp throughout the piece. --- Great job everyone! As with round 1, I can't wait to see these pass the panel!

I just put mine through... xD ...4.5 hrs consumed in listening to everyone's stuff and giving some substantial review to each... D: HOWEVER--all of them were WELL worth the listen. :) ♥

Welcome to the voting stage The mixing stage is over. This round has 24 songs. To vote, do the following: Visit https://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/PRC472 and listen to all the entries Scroll to the form at the bottom of the screen or click PM. Fill in the entries from first to third in the ThaSauce form or fill in your top 3. State a reasoning for it. Participants are encouraged to vote and leave feedback. They get a 3 point bonus, but they are not allowed to vote for their own track. Always look in this thread to find out who's the winner of the round after the voting stage instead of only looking at ThaSauce for the results. You have until Wednesday January 17th 2024 10:59 AM ThaSauce time (11:00 UTC, 12:00 GMT) to vote. One week extra to vote, this will be the final deadline. If you vote by PM make sure that your top 3 is clear. I prefer something like this: (To) (Subject) PRC 472 Vote (Message): 1: (remixer A ) 2: (remixer B ) 3: (remixer C ) (reasoning)

So I wanted to take a moment to say a few things. First, I want to thank everyone, all of the fans, all of the artists who've contributed to the albums over the years; you have my heartfelt gratitude and it has been an honor to help keep this album series going all these years. Secondly, about the updated site; part of the reason for the update is that I'm learning frontend development, well trying to at any rate, that said a site update has been long overdue. Going forward all of the albums will be on the main page, and they will be chronologically newest to oldest. This means no more clicking around to each volume to grab the albums you want. You can do that from the home page. This also has made my life easier and increased the speed at which I can get everything done and posted. I think I just spent about 20 minutes adding all the information onto the site itself, testing it, and then uploading it all to the server. I used to have to go to each and every page to update navigation and that was a very time consuming task. So, there's that. I've also long wanted to change the color scheme. Initially, I was going to stick with green because I love the color, but also because it featured on the original version of the site. I decided to mix it up a bit and go with a blue color scheme, and I think it's a lot nicer. The Coop should be adding the link to the site to the top of this thread soon-ish. That said, for now, I'll post the link here: https://williammichael.info/aocc Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Enjoy volume 17!

Just started my PRC entry today and had quick progress already. It won't be great but it's a source I personally love and a style I think I can manage well with by myself without anyone's help, so that feels somewhat good and fun to work with. Maybe a bit outdated in terms of sound and production, but maybe because of that it'll help bringing a more 2000s music forums vibe that somewhat fits the nostalgia for those of you who kept submitting for decades

Done working on mine. Cheers to everyone already done, and keep at it those of you want to finish.

finally finished my entry. looking forward to hearing everyone's remixes!

Thanks everyone for their input in this topic. It's very much appreciated, also good to see some of the participants in early PRC rounds still being around here and checking it out. I'm pretty sure I made the right decision to make this a final last round of the competition. And of course I will enter myself as well, but (as always) don't expect a remix which will pass the OC Remix judges without a NO vote. Good to see that the first song is already there.

(EDIT...I hit enter too soon LOL) Sounds fair. Sucks it has to be this way, but the compo scene was definitely in a downturn since probably as far back as 2014, though there were some definite upticks here and there. I'll defer to your decision with MnP, TVG. As for PRC, it has been a wild ride and some seriously good times and kick-ass remixes. Thanks for being such an awesome host @Bundeslang (EDIT 2) I'd like to add that you were very patient with the more difficult participants (myself included, at times). You've shown nothing but class and aimed to keep the experience a positive one, despite the BS that came your way from time to time lol. You are a true gentleman and scholar Bundeslang. Pardon the 2nd edit, I am having a hard time gathering my thoughts and overcoming my anxiety all at once lol. I was planning on just coasting along and doing nothing for the rest of the year, but that will have to change, considering the situation... I'd be remiss not to add an entry. Hopefully Bundeslang will be joining in for the fun too!

This was a super fun showing! Just writing down stuff I've brought up in the discord and listening party: - I helmed (arranged, produced, mixed) the lion's share of Dead Waste. seph was super helpful in spicing up the guitar parts I wrote and doing some extra textures/transitions. H36T did stems for piano and female vocals, Ronald did some dark ambient synths/FX, and I consulted with josh and Moebius on drum part-writing and mastering, respectively. - both the gf and I thought the ocarina in Shifting Sands was a soprano sax, lol, but after the drop I can hear it better. - Shifting Sands is also the most VVVVVV-sounding thing JSA has done, imo. The low end profile right before the drop kicks in is great. Xaleph(?) did a great job with the mixing. - "Seven Fists" is the punchiest one this round, imo. I joked with seveneyes/alex that he was gonna master it to -7LUFSi and it came out to -6.9. "Dead Waste" and "Mix" both sat around -10 to -11LUFSi (different people mastering). Its Run, Lola, Run-sounding transition is awesome. - I'm pretty sure all of Team Streets was floored by the Etrian!Sakura arrangement. It took us a while to figure out the flow of ours, in part because the Cherry Blossoms MIDI was formatted as triplets instead of "true" 6/8 or 12/8. The buildup/sound design in the intro is great. - I also had no idea Weeks also did the low vocals during the breakdown in Etrian Sakura! Her range is crazy. - Moe's time changes were super fun and Moe/josh overdubbed seph like three or four times in Mix. Moe also schooled on josh and I by making one of his transitions a seagull when we were trying to arrange it with drums or guitar, lmao. - Sun Shine (In My Heart) has some good vocal balancing for the time-crunch. I also can't hear "Azure Sea and Sky" without hearing the lyrics now. I joked in the listening party that Moe should have stuck like 30 seagulls in his to make it a fair fight. I also thought it was neat how many credits each track had - it seemed like each team member had a hand in nearly all of each others' tracks. Looking forward to Round 2!

Alright folks, got some news for this one - yes, the album is still moving along! Even better, it's been submitted in it's entirety! I've listened to the finished product with some of my fellow judge peers (as well as with Bahamut, the original director for the album) and it seems like it shouldn't have any issues under review, so I can finally say that this thing is happening, and it's happening soon. There will be some teasers and such in the coming months to get y'all excited about the album, but in the meantime I'll share what I think is the *second* most fun organ bit from the album. Ain't the whole song, but I did have a lot of fun making an organ part for one of my tracks so I figured why not spread the joy a little bit? Actually pretty excited to have this submitted, and not just because it'll be a decades-long endeavor coming to a close, but also because the album sounds great. Will it be worth the wait? ... well it was a long wait so I can't be sure, but it'll definitely be worth spending some time with, that's for sure!

Very difficult question. I will not answer with Bundeslang. So many different styles and genres. Favorite is also a very hard term, I fill this in as personal like the most (and genre helps with this). Still (to mention one name) I go for one of the names in the beginning of the contest: Sir Nuts. Perhaps we can do a contest/round one day (maybe a yearly free round or something like that), who knows...

Awesome to see this Sage business! This is important stuff. Just yesterday I was talking about OC ReMix's rare feedback culture to a musician friend of mine. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Thoughts on the round 1 entries: Red Harvest vs. Wir Sind Team Peitsche: This one was really close but in the end it came down to production execution. Both arrangements were very good and mashed up the sources in very creative ways. I really liked the last section of Wir Sind Team Peitsche with the group chanting. That was a great way to bring everyone together onto it. A couple specific notes on Wir Sind Team Peitsche. The brass in the first 0:36-0:58 is very "blatty". Would like to hear more humanization on that section for the orchestral samples. 1:53-2:32, I didn't even notice there was chiptune elements here until multiple listens. Red Harvest: 0:41-0:50 the melody for Brinstar here is very washed out, like when you turn the wet on reverb all the way up and dry all the way down. IMO it got very buried here. Adrift Eternal vs. Back in Cold Blood (Dracula Flow): Difficult to vote for a "joke" track. When I say that I mean, the track was for laughs rather then to be taken very seriously. Back in Cold Blood: The production on the background work is pretty clean and stands on it's own pretty well. I know I mentioned it on voice to you, but changing to the Alucard audio at 3:18 of the way through was a good choice to keep the track moving forward and preventing the Dracula Flow bit from being stale. Good call on the change. Some percussive elements ping-ponging left/right are a little disorienting. Adrift Eternal: This is starting to sound like the modus operandi of Emunator at this point. I have no idea who contributed what on this. Electronic cinematic take on both themes seamlessly transitions back and forth between sources. Very well done. At 4:23 it's suddenly major for some reason did feel a little odd, but I can understand wanting to change the color at the end of the piece to bring more energy. The Heart of Atlantis vs. No Castle for Old Belmonts: This was the toughest call of the 3 pairs. For me I chose No Castle for Old Belmonts due to how the melody was interpreted, used, and embellished upon. Both had good production, and it came down to arrangement/usage. The Heart of Atlantis: The organ echoes of the guitar such as at 2:07 and 2:43 were a little awkward for having close intervals in a low register, makes them get harmonically muddy. No Castle for Old Belmonts: I don't know why, with the title I was expecting this to be country song-like "Take me home country roads". The bass is a little muddy, sounds like someone humming doubling the bass in the first ~minute or so. Not sure if that is a production issue or recording thing. The guitar playing from 2:57 to the end is fantastic and I absolutely love the embellishment here. Whip sfx towards the end is fitting and I'm surprised I had not heard it in any of the other tracks at this point. Production could have been a spoiler on this one, but I preferred the arrangement here.

so, shout out to Hemo and HoboKa letting me know on two separate occasions during MAGFest (sorry, the internet was bad!) that my silly little city pop romp won this round of PRC. thank y'all so much for the love! it was my first time attempting the genre for a track from a silly game that meant so much to me. i'm sending all of my love to you, suspended on silver wings! you all did such amazing tracks. i've been thinking about my winner's pick for quite a bit. while it was tempting to suggest another city pop-leaning piece (lookin' at you, hazure02!) i wanted something sentimental, something to spark inspiration while we're all feeling sentimental. my source pick is "the afternoon streets" from kingdom hearts, by Yoko Shimomura. midi download link (VGMusic): https://www.vgmusic.com/file/12681e383f82817929690513b1ea8f39.html hope to see you all around! keep making bangers!

Hey, it's sad to see this is the end for PRC. I'd really like to be involved more. On the other hand, these 472 compos full of cool stuff won't be in vain; that's a lot of stuff for everyone to enjoy forever, so thanks everyone for so much of good music! Also thanks a lot for the reviews! Some of these were unusually long and detailed, and it's helpful to have more opinions like that from people who really took the time to listen to everything with full attention. I'm glad some people even considered mine worth giving some vote considering you can vote only 3 songs. I'm used to get into the latest places in compos like DoD and PM so that's somewhat refreshing, and even more so since that was a solo work with no actual talented artists recruited haha. I'm aware that while often having good and interesting ideas for arrangements I still suck at mixing and I think of that work more as a unpolished demo than the actual finished product. In a future I might have someone playing guitars and flute and maybe more improvements in drums programming and backing synths so that will sound a lot better.

Hall Of Fame: PRC Winners: 472 Editions TheVideoGamer (30 wins) OneUp (24 wins) PlanarianHugger, Rexy, S|r Nuts (17 wins) Hoboka (15 wins) Evktalo, Sggod89, The Orichalcon (11 wins) Showroom Dummy, Supercoolmike (10 wins) Bundeslang, Esperado (9 wins) Bladiator, DJ Mokram, Hylian Lemon, WassupThunder (8 wins) Dex, Gercr, Ichitootah, Souperion, Trism (7 wins) Chickenwarlord, , V___ (6 wins) APZX, FreakyT, GCJ, Hleet, NinjaPenguinDan, Setokaibracket (Hartbeat Acolyte) (5 wins) Alex Smith, Binweasel, Chalis, Emperor, Just64helpin, Nutritious, Opk, RoeTaKa (4 wins) Analoq, ArseAssassin, AxLR, Beckett007, Blak Omen, Cash, Dewey Newt, DrumJ8, Hemophiliac, JerryTerry, Jorito, Prophecy, TheoConfidor, Xsquader, Yami (3 wins) Amphibious, Andy Jayne, Chavous, DJ Siamey, Dudley Ghost, DZ Composer, DzejPi, Flurry of Flames, HarlemHeat360, Jeremy Robson, JH Sounds, Joystick, Kat, Less Ashamed of Selfs, Marcusg, MindWanderer, Mythril Nazgul, NintenJoe64, Starphoenix, Studionimbus.org, SubNormal J3, Theory of Nonexistence, TheVodouQueen, Thu, Toilet Goat, Txai, YorkshireLakeside, Zerothemaster (2 wins) 0x25ec, Alfredofreak, Aluminum, Ambient, Anachromium, Anorax, Another Soundscap, Arcana, Aurelien Castel, Blakeingram, Blueenvy, Coloradoweeks Darkbrandflake11, DarkeSword, DimWiddy, Ding888Ding, Diotrans, Divinewrath, Dragonlord, Elsalluz, FiremanJoe, Flexstyle, Fxsnowy, Gario, Garpocalypse, General Slicer, Ghetto Lee Lewis, GrapplingHook, Grauw, Hetcenus, Hexen, Hollow, Inrade, Ivan Hakstock, JoxaDaii, Kapden, Kholdstare, Klevarkoopa, Lidawg, Majeliss, Mark Sparling, Moseph, MushroomSword, n0mad, Nasenmann, Necrox, NormallyRetro, Obtuse, Ophanin, OverCoat, Overkillius, Popoi, PriZm, Sadorf, Scott Peeples, Shido, Strike911, Tensei-San, Thomas Neil, Trenthian, Unknown Pseudoartist, Villainelle, YoshiBlade, Zackparrish, Zorrakh (1 win)

Uploaded the second songs by AlchemicJay, AxLR (BRKPNT) and Jorito. Voting will start tomorrow and end at January 10th 2024.

I submitted my tune as well!

Mine's in... :) Original plan didn't completely pan out...but seemingly this holiday season, quite a bit has been a lil' fucky-wucky on my side of the aisle. :| But something was indeed done, despite all that. Uh...happy rest of the holidays, ladies and gents. ♥ Speak soon. :D

Well, here we are again. One week until Christmas, and a new entry in the now 20-plus year old tradition that is Twas. This one's not as long as some of the recent ones, so take some comfort in that you won't have to read through some 30 pages of stanzas. And thus, let's begin... Twas XXII: Not Quite A Silent Night by The Coop Twas the night after Christmas, and at the North Pole, St. Nick was done giving out the presents or coal that his elves had readied for ev'ry boy and girl who'd earned one or the other across the whole world. With that all behind him, Santa could just relax and enjoy a bit of time to read through the stacks of letters he'd gathered between Christmas Eve's night, and the first hints of Christmas morning's coming light. These letters had been placed next to treats left for him; treats that were plentiful and filled him to the brim until it felt like his gut was about to burst, along with enough milk to fully quench his thirst. As he sat before the fire, he could hear his wife come into the warm room that was completely rife with the odor of hot choc'late and burning pine. He looked over at her and asked, “Is that one mine?” “Nope,” she replied without even the slightest smile. “But, maybe I'll get you some in a little while.” “How thoughtful,” he chuckled as she came over and offered him the filled cup, which he took with his hand. “Thanks,” he said and sipped the hot liquid within it. She returned to her chair next to his, and did sit. He sat the cup down on the small table that stood between their two chairs and commented, “That tastes good.” “I know,” she said as she worked on the small blanket. “You've got what was left after I took some of it.” “You're a thief,” he grinned as he reached over and took the first letter, which he opened to take a look at what the child who wrote it had to say to him. As he read it, he said, “This first one is from Tim.” “What did Tim have to say?” Jessica asked without looking up at him. Santa said, “Something about “him wanting a Steam card.” He then looked to his wife. “Now why would this boy want a steamed card in his life?” With a small laugh, “It's not a steamed card, you goofball.” He replied with, “Then what is it, Miss know-it-all?” “A small, money-like card you spend at the Steam store,” she said as she continued her knitting some more. “Steam?” Santa said, his confusion clear on his face. “Why would someone want to buy that from anyplace?” “No,” she laughed lightly. “You buy video games there.” She looked to him and saw his very puzzled stare. This gave her a good laugh for a second or two. She composed herself with, “I don't know about you. “You know when ev'ryone is asleep or awake, yet you have no clue what Steam is, for goodness sake?” “Hey,” he retorted, “I just deliver this stuff. New trends aren't my thing, so don't give me any guff.” She laughed yet again, then returned to her knitting. He watched her for a time from where he was sitting. “What's that?” he asked. “It's for Milton and Fay,” she said. He replied, “Looks a bit small to fit on their bed.” “It's not for them, but their child,” she replied with a smile. “For when their journey as parents starts in a while.” ”Fay's pregnant?” he asked, the surprise in his voice strong. “Indeed,” Jessica said. “She's now eight month's along.” “Why'd no one told me?” he asked, clearly a bit hurt. “I didn't know they were having a little squirt.” She asked, “Didn't you notice her growing belly?” She looked to him as he stared at her flatly. “Oh yeah, that would have gone well for me,” he replied. “I couldn't have found a good enough place to hide “from her if I had so much as referenced how she'd gotten plumper. I know I'd be dead by now.” Jessica laughed a bit with, “Yeah, that's likely true. But this blanket's something that I wanted to do.” He said, “You've never knit something for the other elves when they were going to become a mother.” She replied, “Milton and Fay “have a special place in my heart these days.” As a smile came to her face, she added, “They helped us out a lot that one year.” “That they did,” Santa nodded. “That they did, my dear.” As his wife continued to work on the blanket, Santa turned and reached over so that he could get the next letter from the stacks of those he'd picked up, not seeing his wife sneak a quick sip from his cup. With a small chuckle, he said, “Listen to this one from a boy named Stan, who wanted a BB gun. “It says here, 'Dear Mr. Santa. My name is Stan and I'll try hard to keep this as short as I can. “I'm sorry that I couldn't leave anything out. I hope you're not mad at me or upset about “not getting any treats when you stopped by tonight. It wasn't because I was being mean, alright? “I have diabetes, so I can't eat the stuff that has sugar in it because it's really rough on my body if my blood sugar gets too high. So if you were wondering, that's the reason why. “I still wanted to leave a few cookies for you, but my mom said that you'd get diabetes too if I left you cookies or anything like that, since you're at risk for it too because you're so fat.” Jessica had a good laugh as Santa grumbled, “And onto the naughty list that boy just tumbled.” “Hush,” she uttered and smiled. “That's so sweet of that boy. I hope you gave little Stan a wonderful toy.” She looked over at her husband and heard the way he chuckled as he tucked Stan's short letter away. “What's so funny?” she asked. He said, “I can't tell you.” With one eye brow perked, she said, “It's best that you do.” “D-I-A-B-E-E T-E-E-S,” he said. She looked a little lost as she tilted her head. He smiled, “The way he spelled that word tickles me pink. He won't be winning any spelling bees, I think.” “Be nice,” she admonished. “Don't pick on that young boy.” “I'm not,” he chuckled. “And yes, he got a nice toy.” He picked up the next letter and unfolded it as he readjusted himself where he did sit. Santa began to read, but uttered not one word. His wife glanced over as silence was all she heard. “Ahem!” she announced. “I can't read lips, you old fart.” Santa laughed a bit with, “Now's a good time to start” “learning how to do that, so that maybe next year, you can follow along and enjoy these, my dear.” Jessica chuckled and grumbled, “Very funny. Read me the damn thing so I can hear it... honey.” “Fine fine,” he said and grinned. “Wouldn't want you to pout and complain about how I made you feel left out.” He cleared his throat twice and adjusted the paper, then let out a quick cough and looked over at her. “Ready?” he asked as she gave an exhausted frown. “Heh heh,” he grinned, then read what had been written down. “Dear Santa,” he began. “Hope you're doing OK. I bet you're real pooped after riding in your sleigh and dropping off presents to all the people who had asked for all of those toys, games and stuff from you. “But I thought it might be nice if I gave you a poem to read once you're done after Christmas day. “I tried to keep it short, but I had too much fun and I didn't wanna stop once I had begun “to get really into it. So, it's kind of long. I hope that you'll like it. Signed, Sarah Bizamong.” Jessica raised her eyebrows with, “Quite the last name.” Santa nodded and said, “I was thinking the same.” “How long is it?” she asked. “Four pages,” he replied. With some surprise, she said, “This should be a fun ride.” “To be sure,” Santa grinned as he looked over what the girl had written down. “Well, hold onto your butt. “'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, Maxine was undoing the buttons of her blouse. “'She'd just gotten home after a long day at work at the bank where she'd put up with many a jerk. “'Ev'ryone was rude and in a hurry to get out of the bank so quickly, it made Maxine sweat “'as she did her best to get them all on their way, and bring an end to such a bad, annoying day. “'But now she was home and ready for a hot bath. Then a quick dinner, and a movie for a laugh.'” “Oof,” Jessica uttered. “That rhyme was a bit rough.” “And you said I was mean,” Santa laughed with a huff. “I'm not being mean,” she said. “I'm pointing it out.” He then said with sarcasm, “And kindly, no doubt.” With a quick laugh, she said, “Let's continue, shall we?” To which he replied, “If you insist. Now, let's see...” He looked over the page that he'd been reading from, and looked for where he'd stopped as he began to hum. “Ah ha!” Santa exclaimed. “Found where I had left off.” He then cleared his throat twice and let out a small cough. “'She got into the bathtub and slowly sank down into the hot water as she began to frown. ““God, what a day,” she said as she let out a sigh. Then she brought up her left hand and rubbed her left eye. “'But a few moments later, a weird sound rang out. From her butt under water, some bubbles did sprout. “They reached the surface after a moment or two. Melissa scrunched up her nose and uttered, “Oh, PEW!'” “Hold it,” Jessica spoke as she looked to St. Nick. “A fart joke in her poem? That's nasty and sick.” “I think it's funny,” Santa chuckled with a smile. “You would, “ his wife grumbled. “Childish humor's your style.” “Well, she is a child,” he said. “So she gets a pass when it comes to finding humor in passing gas.” “What's your excuse then?” she asked as she looked over. He said, “It circles back around once you're older.” She shook her head and grinned as she continued to knit the blanket and uttered, “I think that's just you.” With a mischievous grin, he turned a little bit in his seat toward her as she continued to knit. “I seem to recall,” he said, “hearing your laughter echo down the hallway not very long after “what sounded like a whale call came from the bathroom while you were in there making it... I would assume.” Jessica looked to him, saw the smirk on his face, and said, “You'll be sleeping on the couch at this pace.” A moment later, Milton came running into the room and yelped with a panicked, “Come quick you two!” Jessica looked to the elf and asked, “What's wrong, hun?” “Fay's water broke!” he said, “and her labor's begun!” Santa set down the papers with, “Their kid's early.” Jessica looked to Milton and asked, “Where is she?” “Fay's laying on our bed,” Milton quickly replied. Santa said, “Then go back there and stay at her side. “We'll join you shortly after we get what we need.” Milton nodded and ran out with copious speed. “Let's go,” Jessica said as she got to her feet and Santa groaned a bit as he stood from his seat. It took a bit of time, but the two of them got some towels and a tub filled with water that was hot. They went into the room that Milton and Fay shared. Fay was on the bed in pain, while Milton looked sacred. Fay looked over and said, “What are they doing here?” Jessica answered, “To help you give birth, my dear.” Fay stared at them both with some unease in her eyes before she said, “Um, “I don't know about this, guys.” Mrs. Claus said with a smile. “We've seen it all, dear. You shouldn't do this alone, so that's why we're here.” “Jessica will help with the birthing,” Santa said as he came over and stood right beside Fay's bed. “I'll be handing her whatever things she might need.” “We should get to a hospital,” Milton did plead. “Not many of them this far north,” Santa remarked. “Just get this thing out of me for God's sake!” Fay barked as a fresh contraction caused her body much strain, and her face reflected the wave of intense pain. “I'm here,” Milton said as he put his hand on Fay's, but she looked at him with a glare that was ablaze as she yelled, “Your here, huh?! Well, now I feel just swell! It's because of you that I'm in this living hell!” Milton's eyes went quite wide at her abrupt outburst. “Um,” he uttered, “maybe we could knock her out first?” Santa gave a laugh with, “Doesn't work that way, son. I'm afraid her kind words have only just begun.” “This is your fault!” Fay shouted. “You did this to me! I'll get you back for this you little shit! You'll see!” Milton let out a sigh and continued to hold Fay's hand as she shouted and continued to scold him while Santa and his wife got ready to lend their help to Milton's pregnant and yelling girlfriend. And so began the process of Fay giving birth. A time of pain, shouting and very little mirth. Milton's held Fay's hand as he did his best to coach her through the labor while she yelled one vile reproach after another for what seemed like forever. But he stayed calm and reassured her whenever she grew weary of pushing and looked tired as hell, that she was getting closer and was doing well. Jessica was stationed down between Fay's spread feet where she coached Fay as well, yet remained in her seat as she waited for the child to start to emerge, while telling Fay to push with each contraction surge. Santa stood opposite from Milton, ready to help with anything that his wife asked him to do. The first hour went by, which became three, and then five, as all four of them helped the baby to arrive. And arrive it did as the sixth hour had begun. That was when Jessica said, “Milton? Come here, hun.” Milton looked from Fay to Santa, who smiled and said, “I'll stay here with Fay, Milton. You go on ahead.” Milton came up beside Jessica as she told him to grab a fresh towel in which he would hold up the baby when it was coming out of Fay. Milton looked nervous, but gave a shaky, “OK.” Milton did as asked and brought a towel to her. It was then that a new contraction did occur. “Push Fay!” Jessica said, and Fay did just that as Jessica kept watch and waited where she sat. It was as Fay was pushing, that the baby crowned. “Keep pushing!” Jessica said as Fay made a sound that was like a scream and a sob mixed into one. Jessica said loudly, “Push Fay! You're almost done!” Jessica took the towel from Milton's shaky hand as the man looked wobbly. Like he could barely stand. Fay pushed again as the baby kept sliding out. With that final hard push, Fay unleashed a loud shout. And when the baby passed through Fay's vaginal door, Milton let out a moan and passed out to the floor. His head hit with a thump that made Santa wince. Santa chuckled a bit and said, “Good night, sweet prince.” While Milton was unconscious on the room's floor tiles, the cries of a newborn pulled a series of smiles to the faces of those still conscious at that time. Jessica cut the cord and cleaned off all the slime that covered the infant from almost head to toe. Then she wrapped the newborn up in the towel so it was ready to be handed over to Fay. “Give Fay her son,” she grinned. Santa smiled, “Right away.” With care, he turned and looked to Fay's exhausted face. “Want to hold your son?” he asked, his smile still in place. Fay looked to Santa with, “I most certainly would.” She took the babe from him as gently as she could. Though far beyond tired from all that she had gone through, her weary stare held untold amounts of love too as she gazed down upon the life that she'd helped make. That's when a groan rang out as Milton stirred awake. “Could you help him up?” Jessica asked her husband. “I've got a mess to clean and a hand, I can't lend.” “Of course,” Santa said and helped Milton to his feet, adding, “Get up, my boy. You've got someone to meet.” Santa walked him over to the side of Fay's bed, as Milton rubbed the welt on the back of his head. Once there, Milton saw Fay and the infant she held. A look of surprise came to him as his eyes welled up with tears and his expression soon filled with joy. He looked to Fay and asked, “Is it a girl or boy?” “A boy,” Fay replied with a warm and weary smile before she asked him, “Want to hold him for a while?” Milton simply nodded and then picked up his son with a massive smile as his tears began to run down his cheeks at last as his euphoria grew. Santa leaned in with, “Congratulations you two.” With that, Santa joined his wife to help with the mess that had been left behind after the tough success of Fay's giving birth to her and Milton's first child. Once done, Santa looked at the new parents and smiled. Jessica did as well, then nudged her husband so he'd look to her as she whispered, “Come on. Let's go.” She and Santa reached the bedroom door just as Fay called out and stopped them before they went on their way. Fay thanked them for ev'rything that the pair had done. Jessica smiled at her with, “You're quite welcome, hun.” “Get some rest,” Santa said. “You've had quite the ordeal. We'll both come by again once you're sure that you feel “up for having a visitor or two stop by. Until then...” he finished, with a small wave goodbye. With that, he and his wife gave the new mom and dad some time alone with the new child that they now had. It didn't take long before Santa returned to his chair, and Jessica was seated in her's too. He picked up a few papers and shuffled through them, searching for what he'd read before all the mayhem. When he found it, he sat there and said not one thing. But his wife soon spoke up with a loud throat clearing. “A-hem!” Jessica pressed. “Are you going to start?” Santa grinned, “Just looking for the fart bubbles part.” She rolled her eyes as she shook her head just a bit. She let out a small sigh with, “Well, get on with it.” As Santa continued the story Sarah wrote, both Milton and Fay were continuing to dote on the newborn that they had been given that night, while Milton kept making sure that Fay was alright. Fay apologized for the vile things that she'd said to Milton before he passed out and hit his head. He laughed and told her, after he gave her a kiss, that he'd expected worse while she went through sheer bliss. She laughed a bit as well, but said she was sincere. That she loved him, to which he said, “Love you too, dear.” He gave her a kiss as she held their newborn son. Their new lives as a family had now begun. And as the world settled in under the moonlight, Merry Christmas to all. And to all, a good night.

We're getting the band back together

*Staggering out of foggy internet cave with undone tie and pizza-stained-shirt* I'm in for the last hurrah! Composing for PRC was a great experience and I really appreciate the community for making little events like this, it was great to mingle with other artists, so thanks to Bundeslang and everyone else involved with running this!

Dammit, fine. I’m in for Team Metroid

Hey folks, it's been years (decades?)! I'd stopped doing music for a while but got back into it recently and made an instrumental rock guitar album with strong retro video game influences. Allow me the shamelessly plug it @: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1J4ORYXownWtYqcNjVevdm Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/album/un-autre-adieu/1681984400 YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Pascal+Jette+Un+Autre+Adieu Or delete this if this is against guidelines ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We’re in the tail end of the process now. We have a fair few left who are in the polishing and fixes stage of their tracks due to OCR judge panel feedback. We’re waiting for these final few tracks to get finalized before our masterer can finish their job. The release trailer is coming together and we got a general layout and flow to the video now. So that’s in the works. Finally, the website is complete minus a few required last minute changes when it goes live. Not long now, everyone! Note: I’m also planning several YouTube premiere parties hosted at different times upon release so each major timezone groupings can snag a listen. More words to follow on that!