Liontamer

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A fair amount of the synth design was generic, especially the vanilla saw leads. There's something about the beats being plodding. The core beats (bass & kicks) behind the :52-1:02, 1:23-2:04, 2:15-2:24, 2:36-2:56 & 3:07-3:27 sections were too plain and ultimately plodding, IMO, and it's like this for too much of the track. The plain writing of the beats was OK from :10-:40 when you opened the piece up with an understated build, but something more creative and varied should have anchored the piece later on. Smaller thing, but the articulations of the sampled plucked strings from 1:54-2:06 just sound too mechanical; thankfully, they didn't last too long. I know they're not meant to sound 100% organic, but the robotic sequencing for a sound like that generally doesn't work. This is going well in the right direction arrangement-wise, and I agreed with Chimpazilla that the subtle differences in the repetition of the verse at 2:25 were a smart idea to keep the writing fresh. Good stuff so far, Erick, but the synth design and beat-writing both need to be more sophisticated. What's in place is creative, but sounds more like a late-stage work-in-progress than a cohesive, finished product. NO (resubmit)

Once you hear the original, you can see why anyone would want to arrange it. Huelsbeck crafted a beautiful ending theme that lends itself well to relaxing instrumentation like Andrew and Stevo employed for the first half. Ramping up the second half was a creative change of pace, even though the first half was so relaxing that I'd have had 0 problem with the entire track being paced that way. Source usage was nice and straightforward, and the arrangement was excellent. Stamp of rubber! YES

I see Gario's point about having issues with with the arrangement and how close it matches the original. Though the structure was the same, I thought this went in the right direction in personalizing the adaptation to rock; it doesn't pass on the level of interpretation in the arrangement for me either, but there are additive writing components and live performance flourishes that deserved credit. That said, I agreed with Gario on the lack of sophistication in the sequenced material. The lack of realism in the brass and bowed string sequencing, and the piano tone were pretty exposed weak points, and that pulled this down below the bar when considering that alongside the relatively close arrangement. If the sequenced/sampled instrumentation were better humanized and/or the arrangement did more to vary from the original source tune, I could pass this. Shinray's a great band, so if they're interested in further polishing this, we'd love to post it in some form. NO (resubmit)

The instrumental could have been less sparse and had more variation, but the arranged material here was developed enough and the vocals were the focus for the listener. I would have liked the instrumental to also be louder behind the lyrics; it can be heard enough to where it's not a dealbreaker issue as is, but the source feels deemphasized to some extent. Regardless of that, the overall execution worked well; this could have easily fallen flat if the vocals weren't properly produced and given some depth via delay or if the bass kick had no meat on it. Smart lyrics tied into mentions of games in the Kingdom Hearts series as well. Everything's clicking nicely, Joey. It's great to finally and officially welcome you aboard! YES

Yipes. I get that the opening keyboard/organ lead's supposed to sound odd, but it's so thin that the way the sound slurs just sounds beginner-ish. Despite the attempt being there to thicken up the textures and vary up the sounds, Chimpazilla mentioned how all of the sounds are vanilla with minimal or uncreative processing, and that's definitely what does this in. The sequencing's always pretty rigid, but it's hard to get more stilted and robotic-sounding than the lead from 1:04-1:26. The saw that came in for the final section 2:55-3:32 was atonal. There's no fullness to these sounds, and the instrumentation is so plain, thin, and mechanically-timed. I like the effort to make the arrangement creative, Martin, but production's nearly as important as arrangement here, and this is far from where it needs to be; there needs to be more sophistication to how these sounds are used. Try our Workshop forums to ask production questions and get further feedback on your tracks. NO

Why's the panning so wide? Everything's pushed far towards the right, which made 0 sense for how people hear music, especially on headphones. I enjoyed the arrangement, but like Gario said, the sequencing was very mechanical. At :46, I really liked the metallic clangs, but the piano handling the melody was pushed too far down in the soundscape; watch the balance/volume issues there. At least the plucked string lead at 1:06 was more upfront, but both that and the piano were very mechanical-sounding. At 1:48, there should have been even more pronounced dynamic contrast in the arrangement; the added bowed strings did provide that in a limited way, but because the tempo, rhythms, and overall energy level are so similar throughout the piece, it didn't feel like the piece evolved enough overall. Perhaps some other different instrumentation ideas could help as well to provide variety, Fuchs, but the main issues were the rigid timing/sequencing, the repetitive structure, and the panning being needlessly wide. Good arrangement concept, and I like your instrument choices, but you need more compositional dynamics and/or instrumentation variety, and this needs more particular attention on the sample articulations. Try our Workshop forums to ask production questions and get further feedback on your tracks. NO

Right from the get-go, the lack of humanization with the instruments is apparent, both the drums and the piano. What seemed like lead instruments at :26 were very drowned out, which was more obvious at :39 when the melody came in; right now, the guitar chugs are drowning out the leads. I did like the electric guitar handling melody at 1:01 sounding more upfront, but that doesn't account for the other instrumentation being very imbalanced. There was a dropoff from 1:24-1:50, but then the energy level and density at 1:50 felt practically the same as at :39; there's not enough dynamic contrast in the final minute with the opening minute. Also, the energy of the sequenced strings was very flat and undermined the emotion of the arrangement. Gario pretty much had it right with his call. It's all a matter of learning how to humanize your samples' articulations, so you should focus your learning on that and use places like our Workshop to ask production questions and get further feedback on your tracks. NO

DON"T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! (i.e. fixed and will be live the next time the site is synced with the database)

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OC ReMix presents Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger! August 22, 2016 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA... OverClocked ReMix today released its 60th arrangement album, Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger. Coinciding with today's 21st anniversary of Chrono Trigger in North America, the album pays tribute to Chrono Trigger, released by Square in 1995 for the SNES. Featuring eight vibrant arrangements from the OC Jazz Collective, Chronology is directed by OC ReMixer, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger Dylan "Wiesty" Wiest, and is available for free download at http://chronology.ocremix.org. Chronology includes a deep roster of jazz musicians honoring Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu's timeless soundtrack in the Chrono series by arranging several themes for improvisational jazz. Chronology was made by fans, for fans, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Square Enix; all original compositions are copyright their respective owners. "I was able to assemble my own 'dream team' of musicians and arrangers on OC ReMix who all shared a passion for jazz and video game music. I felt Chrono Trigger would be an ideal candidate for our first release given [...] the fact that Mitsuda's music lends itself so well to jazz and improvisation," recalled director Dylan Wiest. Speaking to the format and end result of the album, Wiest explained, "Jazz is a social music best captured in the moment... and while the production process of this album was anything but 'in the moment,' I think the album's sound and cohesiveness will speak for itself." The album's cover artwork was designed by Andrew "OA" Luers, who also created the visuals for OC ReMix's Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin album, which raised over $153,000 via Kickstarter in 2013. Supplementing Luers' cover artwork are nine visual art pieces from several artists depicting Chrono Trigger's various eras from Prehistory to the End of Time. "The musicians and artists on this album have put in countless hours of practice and recording to produce an album which I think sounds authentic and natural," observed Wiest, who steps forward with his first OC ReMix directorial effort by assembling and leading the OC Jazz Collective. Also featured alongside the OC Jazz Collective are the Triplepoint Trio of Doug Perry, Sam Suggs, and Jonny Allen, formed at the prestigious Yale School of Music. Weist added, "It has been an honour getting to know and work with these talented artists from different parts of the world. Each of them brings their own unique sound and nuances to the album and without each and every one of them this album would not have been possible. I hope that our devotion to detail will be apparent in the music and that you will enjoy Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger." Chronology marks OC ReMix's second Chrono Trigger album dedicated to a specific musical style, following 2006's Chrono Symphonic, which focused on symphonic and orchestral arrangements. The album is also OC ReMix's second dedicated to live instruments following Sebastian Freij's 2015 project, Seven Songs for Seventh Saga, featuring Freij arranging and performing music from Japanese RPG The 7th Saga for cello trio. About OverClocked ReMix Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form. Its primary focus is ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans. ### Download Chronology: http://chronology.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Chronology_-_A_Jazz_Tribute_to_Chrono_Trigger.torrent Comments/Reviews: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/44200-/ Preview Chronology: http://youtu.be/3wiyaNlffwY

Preview Chronology: http://youtu.be/3wiyaNlffwY Download Chronology: http://chronology.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Chronology_-_A_Jazz_Tribute_to_Chrono_Trigger.torrent I first played Chrono Trigger when I was seven years old. It was my introduction to JRPGs, anime, and most importantly, video game music. I can vividly remember watching my brother play this game... or was it a movie? It certainly wasn't Super Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong Country. It had complex writing and intricate characters put into a vast and colourful world accompanied by music you might expect to hear in a film. As I learned to play the game, it consumed me. I would rent the game every weekend for what seemed like years. It didn't matter how many times I had completed it because I could restart and it would seem like a new adventure every time. Needless to say, I have a bit of an addictive personality. Over the years, I would go on to obtain many new obsessions and interests that would come and go. Chrono Trigger, however, did not. I am 25 now and, after nearly two decades of playing the game, I can honestly say that it still remains an important part of my life and that every time I play it, I look at it with the same wide eyes and enthusiasm as when I was seven. I explored Chrono Trigger through all of its facets whether it was trying to copy Akira Toriyama's art (and learning that I'm not very good at drawing), discussing the more intricate plot features on the forums at Chrono Compendium, actively awaiting the English dub of Radical Dreamers so that I could further my knowledge in the Chronoverse, or attempting to learn Yasunori Mitusda's score on piano. I believe at one point I had just about the entire soundtrack learned and it was this that nudged me in the direction of the video game music community and, eventually, OverClocked ReMix. Fast-forward another half-decade and I decided to pitch the idea for a jazz-based Chrono Trigger album. It seemed like this was going to be an impossible task to accomplish given the genre restriction and general interest from other arrangers at the time so move ahead another couple years and the OC Jazz Collective was born. Through some fluke, I was able to assemble my own "dream team" of musicians and arrangers on OC ReMix who all shared a passion for jazz and video game music. I felt Chrono Trigger would be an ideal candidate for our first release given the game's quickly approaching 20th anniversary and the fact that Mitsuda's music lends itself so well to jazz and improvisation. The musicians and artists on this album have put in countless hours of practice and recording to produce an album which I think sounds authentic and natural. Jazz is a social music best captured in the moment... and while the production process of this album was anything but "in the moment," I think the album's sound and cohesiveness will speak for itself. It has been an honour getting to know and work with these talented artists from different parts of the world. Each of them brings their own unique sound and nuances to the album and without each and every one of them this album would not have been possible. I hope that our devotion to detail will be apparent in the music and that you will enjoy Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger. - Dylan Wiest (Wiesty)

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I'm pretty much with Gario, and I also hear the repetition concerns djp pointed out. The arrangement's interpretive and substantive enough that I believe it can bear the repetition, but I felt that more pronounced dynamic contrast in place would have made this sound even more interesting. I hear Gario's criticisms on the instrument balance and some parts feeling lost in the overall soundscape, but I didn't have any huge problems with that. All that said, it works for me. YES

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In agreement with the other Js. It is an A-B-C-D structure, but with actual care put into the transitions flowing from one theme to another, which is important in allowing to medley to flow like one cohesive composition. Transitions don't need to be overly complicated; as long as themes flow naturally from one to the next, you're all good! Good adaptation to rock and solid performances. Glad to have more La-Mulana representation here and I'm looking forward to more submissions from WASD! YES

No. Sorry to miss this from the previous thread, YB. No, we've never had a video taken down due to copyright notice. We have 23 videos out of 3,000+ that have been flagged for copyright notices; some are based on similar melodic matches to the original music, some are claimed by the artists or copyright holders, and many are false positives based on sound effect matches or similarities that we really should work on resolving now that we have a MCN that can handle this on OCR's behalf. I can create a list later, if you need.

I've only done voice stuff on a few mixes, but I'm fine with anything I'm in being used as long as the collaborators are.

Have to include some new stuff from Brandon that continues to assume the worst about how OCR is run, including the belief that mixes from popular games were posted in order to maximize YouTube revenue (ignoring all the less popular games we posted mixes from). I want to be sure people can see these accusations. My responses below: Most of you probably don’t know that recently, OC ReMix attempted to monetize videos to get revenue on YouTube. They started doing this on June 14th, 2016 but recently were forced by public response to take it off until such a time that their ducks are in a row. The monetization had been active for 2 months without any of the artists being informed or asked permission, and none of the remixes were legally licensed so that revenue made would be shared with the publisher or rights holders of the music. There were a lot of issues with this taking place, but the most glaring issue is that they did this without asking or informing anyone. They did it in a really shady manner, and tried to justify having done it by saying “nobody noticed for 2 months”. When confronted with this betrayal and questions of legality and ethics, some staff shared their opinions, while others — such as site owner djpretzel — became very defensive, and ultimately brushed concerns aside. At the end of the short discussion, I was blamed for “misrepresenting” the situation, or making OCR “toxic” by airing my concerns, speculation, and grievances. My biggest problem from the start was that they had gone behind our backs — we, the artists, who essentially provide all of the content for OCR — and did this without asking and without permission. Then, when confronted about it, they justified generating revenue on this platform outside of OCR (YouTube) by saying it’s “the same as advertisements on the OCR website.” I personally don’t see it that way. YouTube is a free service, and “remixes” need to be legally licensed so that the rights holders get their fair share of the revenue. If the YouTube aspect had been in the agreement to begin with, or if we had simply been asked if it was alright, this probably wouldn’t have been such a big deal. Site owner djpretzel has stated that the Content Policy will rightfully be updated to reflect changing technologies, as the original policy had been written in 2007. The second thing that bothered me about the situation is that rather than apologize, and simply state that they’re going to try to work harder to appear ethical and work more diligently to adhere to legality as much as possible, I was demonized and scapegoated by site owner djpretzel. I was, more or less, accused of “poisoning the well” as he brushed aside the negative concerns surrounding the situation. I have often, for multiple years, been critical of OC ReMix’s lack of accountability and transparency. Going forward, I will probably also be critical of their lack of trust and good will. As someone who provides content for the website, and essentially a customer (if you would consider OCR to be acompany), I am in no position to be scapegoated any more than any other customer would be for asking questions. That’s unprofessional, and demonizing me over the situation is embarrassing and shows a lack of character, something that has been coming more to the forefront with how OCR conducts its business. As a result of this whole disrespectful display, and waste of mytime, I am ready to remove all of my personal content that I produced alone from OC ReMix. However, I decided to do what OCR was not capable of and leave this decision up to the fans. Only 8 people voted in the poll I pinned on Twitter, sadly, which is hardly a sample size worthy of note. But in an age where people don’t really care that much to begin with, this is probably the best I can do outside of running the poll for a month and publicizing the situation in other ways. So in brief: I’m not going to request my content removed from OC ReMix. However, as a result of this petty, inept nonsense, I am going to be seeking other avenues to release and promote my own content — legally, and in a manner that I can’t be exploited in some way. This may mean many less submissions to OCR, and more legally licensed, high quality projects released through Loudr, available on iTunes and Spotify, in addition to original music released through similar platforms. (ed: I forgot to mention YouTube. I will still put all my new mixes on YouTube unless they’re made for a project.) I have no intention to end any of my current projects. The only difference you might see is less fresh content going towards OC ReMix from me personally, yet the projects that are currently active (FF3, FF8, others) should ultimately not be affected. I can only hope that the revenue generated by upcoming projects allows the staff to look past their grudges, as the artists involved deserve to have their content heard if they agree to release their content through OC Remix. Thank you for reading, Brandon E. Strader Sagnewshreds, on 15 Aug 2016 - 01:46 AM, said: Need to be clear that Brandon wasn't blamed for "misrepresenting" the situation, as if it were just a difference of opinion. Despite pages of discussion and details, he's continued with over-the-top conspiracy theories, fake claims of evidence, and conclusions in bad faith that were literally libel. We believe the Content Policy gives OCR the permission to republish the mixes on other sites and present advertising in the context of the submitted materials, that fair use allows us to do this without licensing the music, with the revenue going to OC ReMix as an organization and that all revenue is disallowed from being used for profit. He doesn't agree with that point of view, and that should have been the focus of his issues. But negative concerns weren't brushed aside as he claims, and Brandon wasn't the only person who shared them. He also claims there were no apologies and that no commitment was made to transparency and legality. People can read through this thread and see all of the back-and-forth. Everything brought up was addressed. I will say that Brandon is very good at projection, since demonizing people, being disrespectful, and displaying a lack of trust & goodwill are things he was great at in this discussion. One thing not mentioned before is that enabling YouTube ads increases the search ranking of the content, the same way that enabling ratings does. Back when we started the YT channel, we actually disabled ratings for everything to match how we didn't do polling or ratings of the mixes. It turned out that disabling ratings made YouTube reduce the visibility of the videos. But enabling those things makes YouTube increase their visibility, so we're trying to get the mixes heard by more people. That may explain why the SM64 mix, which was the first one with monetization turned on, received greater views; YouTube actually gives more weight in discoverability to content that's monetized and allows ratings. That said, I'm the sole person that decides mixpost order these days (because I'm tagging them up and staging them), and claiming that we were just posting popular mixes to maximize YouTube revenue is silly and needlessly overthinking things. Sagnewshreds called your suspicions "tinfoilly," and he's right. For posting your Chrono Cross mix out of cycle, sometimes I do that. I just noticed you hadn't had a mix posted in about a month and didn't know you had anything else waiting besides some tracks on the FF9 project that were going to be posted on 9/9. We can't state enough how we're not actually motivated by money and don't profit, but in any case, in the 2 month period where ads were enabled on 43 out of 3,000+ videos, we also had mixes from Gradius Gaiden, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Yoshi Touch & Go, Skylanders, ilomilo, To the Moon (yours), Global Gladiators, Lufia II, Rollerball, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Tyrian, Vectorman, After Burner, and R-Type for the C64. Have to say this over and over again: we don't care what game something is from. At all. It doesn't change how we evaluate anything. If the submission is creative and interpretive enough with the arrangement, and produced well enough, we'll post it. We don't post stuff from certain games to boost ad revenue or social media metrics or whatever. Also, all ads were off since the 14th, including when that Chrono Trigger album trailer went up (plus we had already decided not to monetize trailers (which is why you yourself noticed the Esther's Dreams trailer wasn't monetized). Brandon's also saying that even BEFORE YouTube monetization, we were ALREADY strategically weighting mixposts to heavily popular games. This is despite publishing an album from him for the super-obscure game Teen Agent. As I've said many times, we don't pick what games are mixed, the ReMixers do. And it almost goes without saying that Chrono Trigger or Mega Man 2 or Final Fantasy VII is more of a nostalgia and popularity draw among the ReMixers themselves, which is why they arrange those games more than others. We don't control that or try to steer anything in that direction. If OCR could have 1,000+ more Tim Follin arrangements, that would be awesome. The last thing I'd say is that I don't know why Brandon put up a poll on keeping his mixes up on OCR. It's very obvious that he assumes the worst about the staff, thinks we're pocketing the ad revenue, maybe buying cars or comics or anything & everything non-OCR related with it, that it's some money-making cabal, that all the staff are complicit in said cabal, and that we'd love to illegally and unethically generate YouTube revenue in the shadows and willingly anger hordes of artists. Since he's convinced it's run like that and unethical like he claims, why would a poll convince him to keep his ReMixes up? Like I said before, no amount of transparency or actions can make Brandon believe that OCR is run honestly, ethically, above board, and without a profit motive. Weighing that, I can't imagine why or how he'd convince himself not to request removal of his mixes. Due to his overly suspicious, paranoid, and imaginative nature about all of this, I think that's inevitable.

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Will also add that if you still have questions about ad revenue or other concerns that you don't feel were answered fully, zircon wrote up an FAQ that we've reviewed detailing everything to the best of his ability. Feel free to ask questions and continue the discussion there.

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It's not particularly important to have the names, but most of those comments are from the catch-all discussion thread on The Shizz where Brandon raised his concerns and also shared a lot of negative assumptions and distortions that framed the issue in a negative way from the start. In any case, the names don't really matter, although it's really silly to hide them. No one on OCR staff cares who said what; there's no reprisal or adding their names to a shitlist; people can say their piece, even if they don't understand the situation or just dislike OCR for having a judging process and discouraging less interpretive covers.