Jillian Aversa

Yup, collabs are fine, as long as you don't mind splitting the prize if ye win. TaVeRnErO: "a cappella" is the voice (or multiple voices) alone— singing without accompaniment. Again, it's fine if anyone wants to include an a cappella section in their entry, but zircon's instrumental must be used.

2P: Rap is welcome! Give it what you got. Mephisto: If you wanna add in an a capella section, I think it's fine if you splice zircon's track. Might be tricky, but could be done. Still, the track has to be the primary basis for this round.

analoq: Vocal remixing is remixing, too! Anyway, as I said in the first post, the format for this competition is always subject to change. I just thought for the first time around, we'd attract more people if we didn't make them do the instrumentals themselves.

That's the spirit. XD

Haha, yes, it's from the Flow Basket! (That's zircon's remixing tutorial on VGDJ, for anyone who missed the reference.) And DjSammyG: sure, your lyrics can be whatever you want! Just remember that the instrumental background cannot be changed— only added upon with vocals and effects. ^_~

AND WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! I am amazed at how close this competition was- and no, that's not some "stock comment" I've been saving up for the results stage. Believe it or not, the 1st and 2nd place-winning entries were only TWO POINTS AWAY. It was practically a tie, and the 3rd place-winning entries were a tie. Pretty amazing, huh? 26 people voted total (and yes, I did get all the counts verified). Not bad, guys! Thanks to all who participated. 1st place: #3- Seduction, by pixietricks 2nd place: #9- Smooth Steel, by Malcos 3rd place: #1- Now or Never, by bladiator AND #5- Movin', by 2P a.k.a Ch|oroPhi| Because my entry won 1st place, and 3rd place resulted in a tie, the prize distribution will be slightly altered. Malcos will receive an OCR t-shirt or hoodie and a $10 iTunes gift certificate (what was originally intended as the 1st place prize), and both 2P and bladiator will receive a $20 iTunes gift certificate (what was originally intended as the 2nd place prize)!!! Malcos: I'll need your mailing address and t-shirt/hoodie size preference. You'll all receive your iTunes gift certificates electronically. ^-^ Honorable Mentions: #6- Quicksilver Lies, by DragonAvenger and #7- Smooth Metal ©, by zyko These guys tied in 4th place, and were not far behind the 3rd place winners! So congrats to you both as well. It was very close. Entries: 1- Now or Never, by bladiator 2- Smooth Metal (A), by Flik 3- Seduction, by pixietricks 4- Smooth Metal (, by Kitsuta 5- Movin', by 2P a.k.a Ch|oroPhi| 6- Quicksilver Lies, by DragonAvenger 7- Smooth Metal ©, by zyko 8- Smooth Metal (D), by DjSammyG 9- Smooth Steel, by Malcos 10- Without You, by Ghetto Lee Lewis 11- Smooth Metal (E), by DarkChocobo and Zolborn Lyrics: Not everyone wrote lyrics, but here are the ones that did. Numbers correspond to mix numbers. 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 And just for fun, here is a kickass mashup that The Mac Attack made! Smooth Reputation (mashup) -------------------- VOCR: Vocal Remixing Competition... Not an acronym! Hello, and welcome to ocremix's first vocal remixing competition! Much thanks to genghisdani for coming up with the idea, and all those who offered their suggestions in the thread. I'll try to keep things open-ended for this first round, to get an idea of what direction we're headed with this thing. To start things off, I thought we could try a comprise between the "vocal arranging" and "karaoke" approaches— partially because I think making this a vocal and instrumental remixing competition would discourage some more inexperienced people from getting involved from the start, and partially because I think it would making the voting process easier and more objective if everyone sang over the same track. If the end result is too boring, we can change the format for next round; nothing is set in stone! I'm giving everybody a lot of creative freedom, though, so hopefully there will be a great deal of variety. Round 1: Mega Man 2 "Smooth Metal" by zircon zircon has graciously lent us his latest remix— unreleased!— for the basis of this first round. The track remixes the source "Metal Man," from Mega Man 2. It is the hotness! Anyway, here are the basic premises for this round: You must use zircon's instrumental track for the background. The track may not be changed— only added upon with your vocals and effects, or spliced if you're going for an a cappella section. You may choose to sing the source melody as it already stands. Original melodies and harmonies are applauded, however. Don't be afraid to take some chances! You can write original lyrics or sing without words; it's up to you! Additionally, if you'd like to sing with lyrics but can't think of any, you may collaborate with someone else so long as you give them credit. No borrowing from other sources unless you run it by me first. Texts for songs with lyrics must be included in the email to me. And if your song is in a foreign language, an English translation is required. Effects are more than welcome, but the main vocals may not be vocoded. Auto-pitch correction will be allowed for the time being; nobody's perfect, and we don't want this compo to focus too much on raw singing talent, when there are plenty of other factors that contribute to a good vocal mix. Entries: All entries are due by 9:00 pm EST on Saturday, December 23rd. That's three weeks, everybody! MP3 submissions should be tagged and sent to mail@jilliangoldin.com, and may be hosted online or included as an attachment. If you send me your track well before the deadline and then decide you wanna make some changes, that's totally cool. It's never too late to send again before the round closes. Do not post your track in this thread, however! We don't want anyone to "draw inspiration" from your original ideas, and plus... more suspense. At the end of the three weeks, I will host all of the tracks on my website and edit the first post for everyone to see. Voting: Once the competition closes and the tracks have been hosted, voting shall commence! All entrants must participate as well, in the spirit of comradery, and cannot vote on their own mix (duh). Everyone will choose their top three entries, listing them in order from most favorite to least favorite, and PM their votes to me. #1 choices will receive three points, #2 choices two, and #3 choices one. Make sense? We won't actually be rating the mixes on each of the following criteria, but I ask that you keep these things in mind while you vote: Creativity (personal flair, interesting harmonies, original lyrics, etc) Vocal execution (pitch, rhythm, confidence, etc) Production (bad/hissy recordings, dry mixing, etc) We want to reward people for getting out there, even if they think their singing could use some improvement. So don't just vote for your favorite vocalist, kay? Everybody deserves a chance! Prizes: I'm totally copying zircon with his FF7 compo prizes, but... 1st place will receive an OCR t-shirt or hoodie and a $10 iTunes gift certificate. 2nd place will receive a $20 iTunes gift certificate. 3rd place will receive a $10 iTunes gift certificate. Have fun, everybody! And don't hestitate to ask people for advice/critique along the way... just no posting of tracks in here. Feel free to use the WIP forums instead. Participants so far: DjSammyG rpggamer180 TaVeRnErO_RuDd suzumebachi DragonAvenger Daniel_Rydell 2P a.k.a Ch|oroPhi| The Prophet of Mephisto Zolborn & Dark Chocobo Gimgak EazyP Kitsuta Mewtation Abadoss genghisdani Ghetto Lee Lewis Malcos Great_Deku Leon K. Hemophiliac Unknown bladiator Chavous pixietricks majeliss flyingninja 911 zyko

Yeah, nobody has officially taken it yet, buuuuut... zircon and I, Trenthian, Starblast, and I think one or two others have actually encorporated it into our mixes anyway. It'll definitely be there, even if no one else decides to make it their 'ting. ^-^

Yeah, most of mine said "VGDJ" with some sort of smiley face. I was less creative.

Andy's handwriting is atrocious... But he DID put a lot of effort into all those little pictures/comments, so props to him. ^-^

Indeed, it does! This is fantastic. I understand and respect zircon's production criticisms here, but to me it just sounds like you were going for a gritty sort of vintage style. Whether or not that was your actual intent, don't matta to me! You do have the whole record fuzz thing going on, though... Was that just a ruse? Working the pipe transport sound effect into that intro, and even in pitch and rhythm, was so very clever! And then you've got the little blips doing the same thing later on. So cool... Seriously! I dig the changeup at 1:36, and all the nifty pitch bends throughout that section. This arrangement demonstrates a lot of sophistication, despite its goofiness. So much instrumental variation, and excellent solos and FX. I'm loving every second! YES

I have to agree with Vig about the flute intro. The breathing sounds shakey, sixteenth notes are rushed and uneven, and there are a few sour notes. Some minor tuning issues between the strings and flute in general, but I doubt most audiences would care. I like the little second violin licks at 0:53 and 0:56, and the accoustic strumming is a nice effect. I don't know if I'd agree with some of the harmonic changes you've made the second time around, however. They're certainly interesting... so perhaps they'll grow on me after a few more listens. At 1:09, one of the string instruments (viola or second violin?) clashes pretty badly on its way down the scale. Despite the brevity of this mix, I really dig your lively "folk dance" approach to Frog's theme; it's something we've never really heard here before. Larry complained about the fakey/repetitiveness of the violins, but I think that sort of adds to the charm. I picture an Irish pub with people dancing on tables etc etc. Mixing's good: logical panning, and no hiss. Creative work! I hope you guys submit again, and perhaps with some more solid playing. YES

Alright, I'll admit that this is a pretty safe arrangement according to our standards; it stays pretty close to the source in terms of tempo and chord progression. Still, I feel like OA has really personalized the piece. He's set it in an incredibly nostalgic way, contrasting the lighter accoustic sections with soulful electric guitar and sweeping percussion... I actually feel a little fuzzy inside, despite never having played the game. It kinda sounds like the credits track to an anime, y'know? Everything flows really well: great soundscape, sensitive melody variations, excellent guitar solos (and not too showy)! I'm not crazy about the section starting at 2:34- doesn't really go anywhere with the repeated bassline. But it does succeed in breaking up the rest of the repetition, so no biggie. My only other gripe would be the very final chord, in which I feel the guitar dies away a little too soon, leaving the supersaw sort of exposed... Just a matter of taste, but I guess it felt a little awkward, given the overall tenderness of the piece. Anyway, production sounds ship shape. Good job, Andy! But I'm sure it wasn't too bad to begin with. This is an easy: YES

Yeah, it's our bad that we mischaracterized you due to the lack of response. Anyway, I'm aware "we started it" in the sense that we made a post about it, but we did so in our own thread. There's very little point in bringing said post (and subsequent arguments) to ANOTHER thread, which I definitely didn't do. It also wasn't "on" VGDJ... The only people that would have read that are those who follow our website or our thread, and they don't know who you are. In any case, we didn't realize you had no computer access. Normally, one would assume that three days would be enough time to check one's email. Rexy, I wouldn't worry about this project's publicity. I mean, true there would have been at least 1,000 more people hearing about it through our show, but this is Sonic...on the internet. I'm sure if you guys go posting links at various Sonic fan sites, you'll draw some attention. ^_~

So sorry for all you guys who had postal problems. And don't worry, bluefaker, we will definitely be back. I don't want to say anything definite now, but it'll probably only be about a month's break.

First of all, living in Australia does not necessarily mean we couldn't find a time to do the interview that works for both parties. We've been planning a TO interview for a while now, (although he has some technical recording issues at the moment). And even if there were no possible way he could have done it, the fact that he didn't even bother to reply to our email was insulting. Secondly, KFC and Snappleman were both extremely unreliable, even after we all agreed on a time and stressed the importance of their being there. KFC came home over an hour and a half late...high...and then complained that his microphone was "suddenly stolen." Snappleman promised that the next day would be no problem at all, and then bailed out last minute without even emailing/IMing/calling us when he knew was going to be even later than 11 or 12, after our original 7:30 time. I'm pretty surprised that you would complain to us about the loss of this special Project Chaos episode, and about our reaction to it, when it was clearly their fault. When we set up an interview, we expect to take first priority. There is simply no excuse for forgetting the interview, or agreeing to babysit someone at the last minute. And neither of the two that originally promised to be there made any effort to reschedule. Still, as we said, the Project Chaos stuff was only a catalyst for our decision to go on break. There are many good reasons to do so.

Wow, you're actually the second person that has reported a torn envelope/missing button! Salty had the same problem!

December 28th is fine for me. So is the 29th.

Any volunteers who live in Manhattan? There's going to be a lot of walking regardless though - it's NYC! Although....all that walking in circles around Grand Central to figure out where to have lunch was unnecessary. Also, someone should have some restaurants in mind and the phone numbers of the places for dinner - it'd be good if we could nab a reservation in advance rather than wait for an hour again for dinner. You started the thread? You're in charge! If you don't think you can be responsible for da plan-making, hand it over to someone else in the NYC area. ^_~

No indeed! We will be doing a special feature show on Project Chaos. ^-^

This is a rather boring subject. I'm surprised we've managed to stay on it for so long... Moving on!

Really, Abadoss, it's okay. The videocast is over now.

I have a simple request. Can we make sure we have some sort of home base this year? It was too much wandering around last time, and I feel like we all would have bonded better if we'd been able to chill out in a relatively quiet place. Plus, too much walking! ^_~

We did do that, believe me. Took us a while to get started, though, so the fire was already on its way out. Did you also stack the logs in such a way that there was a mini-furnace underneath? The air that feeds the fire needs to be coming from underneath the logs... Yes. And we criss-crossed the kinder, too, with space for oxygen.

Excuuuuuse me?! I entertain people for a living.