Liontamer

I'm always down if I have free time to do an interview about the history of the site or how it's come along in the past 12 years. I don't make GOOD music, but I've terribly sang on top of some VGM before! http://olremix.org/remixes/99

The piano timing was pretty stiff, along with the woodwind sequencing. The warbling-style sounds brought in at :23 was a strange fit with the more organic-style instruments. Wasn't a big fan of the drum sound at :23; it just was too loud and crowding out other instruments. The synth line handling the Dr. Wily theme at :47 was a stronger fit. At 1:33, the hand-drumming was interesting, but the mixing was messy, IMO. The piano probably should have been more forward, BUT because the sequencing was so rigid, it would be exposed more; so you're left with a quiet, robotic piano that doesn't fill out the soundscape well and makes the overall timing of everything sound like it doesn't match up. But the main issue I had hearing the drums was that it made the overly rigid timing of the piano and woodwind stand out a lot more since the parts didn't lock together. Same with the airy strings brough in much later around 3:12. Texturally, all of this sounded like an awkward, patchwork kind of setup, and wasn't cohesive enough basically the whole way. The arrangement had merit, but I didn't feel this end result was cohesive enough yet, and it could stand another coat of polish. NO (resubmit)

Since you gave such a detailed breakdown, I timestamped it myself, though it wasn't close: :00.5-:18, :20-:25.5, :28.5-:58, 1:08.5-1:15.5, 1:32.5-2:01.5, 2:04.5-2:10.5, 2:13-2:26, 2:44.75-2:52, 2:53-3:12, 3:25-5:10.5 Not gonna bother adding it up. Anyway, I'm just gonna co-sign with the others who felt we need another pass at the mixing on this. OA and Vig had it right, the vocals are too dry and too far forward, dry being the biggest problem, IMO. I enjoyed the arrangement otherwise and hope we get a tweaked version soon! NO (resubmit) EDIT: Actually, forget it, I think this is fine. I've listened about 15 more times, and while the vocals OR instrumentation could use something to fill this out further, the vocal mixing actually isn't a big deal. The 2:28-3:01 section was the big offender for me, where the guitar work felt too dry with nothing around it to make up for the thin sound, and I was wrongly conflating that issue with the vocals. But that's really the only area bothering me, and the rest of the production sounded reasonable to me, just needed to get used to hearing this and seeing how everything fit together. YES

When we have movement we can let everyone know about, we'll be sure to let everyone know, believe me.

Y'all need to stop speculating on what's going on, including these perceptions of Kickstarter.

Yes, he's always been the only webmaster of the site.

Do you want that for your forum name as well, or are you keeping it as is?

Source Breakdown :00 - "Dr. Wily Stage 1" :25 - "Stage Start" :50 - "Stage Select" 1:08 - "Air Man" (with "Stage Select" backing for the first few seconds) 2:55 - "Bubble Man" 4:13 - "Crash Man" 7:28 - "Dr. Wily Stage 1" The arrangement was relatively conservative, but expansive, and the performance was strong overall. However, there were too many abrupt changes from one source tune to the next (:43, 2:55, 4:12, 7:28), and not enough where everything flowed together seamlessly like 1 cohesive song (:25, 1:08, 5:43). It's suffering from medley-itis, so while it's an enjoyable track, it doesn't sound like one cohesive piece, it sounds like too many source tunes loosely connected together, which is a shame given that separately they were all decently developed. If you could figure out better transitions from theme to theme, I'd say this was an easy pass, but that's the one big drawback as far as our standards. NO (resubmit)

Artist name: SuperFX Dario Montanino http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperFXmusic User ID: DarioMontanino Submission Information Song: Mega Man 2 Remix name : Mega Man 2 Medley Original Composed by Takashi Tateishi

On the production side, the string articulations was pretty solid, and everything was mixed nicely. The soundscape was filled out well, and I liked the background string padding in particular. Not an innovative arrangement, and it can seem overlong and repetitive, but I felt it flowed and evolved fine for a purposefully chill approach. While there were some original writing ideas in the background, it took until around 5:56 to hear any good original foreground writing combined with the source material. That said, despite being straightforward in handling the structure of the source tunes, the mood and instrumentation here helped add the interpretation factor we're looking for. IMO, a solid arrangement here by Damon that gets the job done. YES

Contact Info: ReMixer Name: CrimzonWolf777 Real Name: Damon Barlow Website: http://soundcloud.com/crimzonwolf777 User ID on Forums: 24939 Submission Info: Game: Super Metroid Song Title: Depths of Maridia Songs Used: 'Brinstar - Red Soil Wetland Area', 'Maridia - Rocky Underground Water Area' Comment: So I've been really scared to attempt to submit ANYTHING to OCRemix because I still feel like I'm not good enough. But because someone screamed at me telling me to just do it, here it is. I've remixed alot of game songs, and this one is my 1st submission. What made me put these two songs together was when I was playing Super Metroid and I was humming part of the Maridia area when I was in Brinstar. So I had to do it. I really hope everyone enjoys this song! ( )v

Got it. Did you want to still use SonicThHedgog as your ReMixer name, BTW? I noticed you're using Aires and Air3s a lot, so I wasn't sure if you're trying to move to a new artist name now. Let me know if you need a change for your ReMixer and/or forum name and I can do that if you need.

All of that, yes.

As far as the first 8 minutes, aside from 3:03 the transitions sounded fine to me. Not ZOMG great, but nothing that screamed poor. One could argue 7:12's switch-up in particular with the jingle was abrupt, but it was also fine upon repeated listens, IMO. I didn't hear anything big UNTIL 8:33 that indicated this arrangement wasn't reasonably (and fairly cohesively) structured. There were three very jumpy transitions in quick succession in a little over a minute (8:33, 9:21, 9:46) that didn't flow, and that ultimately makes it a tougher call, but it didn't seem like enough to tip the scales in the big picture. The mixing felt somewhat cluttered most of the way, but the overall production quality seemed OK. The arrangement of the various songs I recognized was certainly personalized, and while there were some jumpy points with no flow late in the game, this felt overall like an extended piece where the focus changed every so often. Most of the theme usages seemed brief, but there were a few extended segments that showed off good development. I'd need to break this down and compare it to the list of songs just to verify the source usage, but I didn't get the sense of it being a dealbreaker merely on account of it being a mega-medley. Will come back to this. EDIT (8/16): I checked out the "loledly" MP3 Nicholas provided that featured all of the sources stitched together just to verify all the source usage, and everything checked out fine. The final section from 9:46-10:32 was a bit of a disappointment, as that was a super close cover, both in structure and mood, but it wasn't a big deal given the overall length of the track. Giving this a few more listens, I still recognize the issue the NOs are taking with the medley structure, but I also still feel the sources were substantially personalized in their performances, and the structure flowed more than adequately enough for the first 8 1/2 minutes. The structure sounded a lot like a rock opera style piece, where there are a lot of twists and turns that nonetheless worked well in the big picture. Again, it's a shame that the final 3 minutes, at least in my opinion, didn't have the reasonable transitions like the first 8 1/2, but at the end of the day, this was cohesive ENOUGH for me to give it a YES. Not the strongest YES given the structure, but it's above the line for me just the same. The performances and production was very strong, and the level of interpretation was solid enough given the expansive treatment each source tune was given.

Did a quick arrangement breakdown, since there were several extended sections that seemingly didn't use the source: A 7:37-long arrangement needs 228.5 seconds of source usage for more than 50% of the track the source material to be dominant. :20-:46.25 (background drum pattern), :47.5-2:10.25, 2:48-4:30.5, 6:35-7:07.75 = 245.25 seconds or 53.67% The arrangement did a passable job going the expansive route, basically keeping the source material intact, but with a different sound and with lots of writing built around it. There were some weaker sections in terms of the execution, but the overall structure and dynamics got the job done, even if I wasn't as enthusiastic as the others. The main issue though was the production. Not sure what supporting instrumentation was going on from 3:14-4:30. The sequencing sounded too stiff (particularly the drums), and everything was competing for space; it could have been pizz strings or a dog barking, I don't know. The soundscape was cluttered, a problem that stood out more during fuller sections like that one. Same with 5:37's section with the faster tempo and crazy drumming. The drumkit being more prominent at 4:42 was pretty suspect, IMO. The rigid timing made it an awkward fit within the rest of the instrumentation. Not a huge deal in the big picture, but there were moments where things didn't lock together as well as they should have. A very underwhelming interplay of the source tune with the original writing at 6:35. Compositionally and conceptually, it's good stuff. However, it just muds together too indistinctly, obscuring BOTH lines. Once the mixing is cleaned up a little and the drums have some more punch, we're good to go, because the arrangement is strong enough, but the mixing was a weak point. It's definitely got merit, and this will probably pass (no problem here), but there's some polish this could use on the sequencing and mixing to sound meaningfully stronger. NO (borderline/refine/resubmit)

I sent an update to djp on this, so if it doesn't get updated soon, you may call him a lazy miscreant.

That's (not) the plan.

Yeah, Deia talked to him too at a con, MAGFest 10 I think, and he thought his comedic mixes didn't fit the site. I think she tried to tell him that's not the case, but hey, gotta let a brother know again! No hate if Brent simply doesn't want to submit anything or doesn't care, as it's his prerogative, and he's always been great on a personal level too. But everyone SHOULD know that as long as an arrangement is substantially interpretive and reasonably well-produced, it's not disqualified or scrutinized extra for being a comedy track.

What...EVER. The clips are cheesy/great (Posting on Friday the 13th ReMix on Friday the 13th, FTW.)

Personally, I love the arrangement. Once you compare it to the original, the differences are appreciated. Cool tempo change, taking the faster guitar rhythms of the original and slowing it down to be the foundation of this mix. Gotta agree with the production criticism though. The intention is good, and we all know Matt, Steve, and Brandon are great at what they do, so hopefully none of them take it as an insult. In the beginning, the intentional static/artifacting quickly became too pervasive in the song once it picked up at :15 and just sounds messed up, despite us knowing it's 100% intentional. It ends up sounding like the file's unintentionally corrupted. Brandon's vocals coming in at 2:44. You definitely have to know the original to appreciate that fully, because you can't obviously tell what the spoken words are in this version. I was tolerant of the mixing for maybe the last 2 minutes, especially because the static wasn't as noticeable. At least according to Winamp's visualization (not pretending it's cutting edge ), it just seems like whatever instrumentation was always screeching in the mid-range was too dominant in the soundscape and ended up crowding out too many of the other elements of the piece seemingly beyond what's necessary in terms of technique and crafting this overall sound. Basically, I'm cosigning with DA; her vote nailed the standout issue, IMO. If the mixing was similar, but without the static interfering so much and without the blaring mid-range crowding out the soundscape, I'd probably go with this in a minute. Obviously this is a more noise-oriented track meant to have distant-sounding instruments and muddier leads, but it's not constructed in a poorly done way, so stuff like the vocal and drum placement sounded fine to me. All of that is purposeful and not inherently detrimental. I just felt the balance among the parts should be refined. I really hope we can post this in some form and that it can be done in a way where Matt, Steve & Brandon remain pleased with it and don't feel they had to compromise their vision. I think it can be done, and hope they'd be willing to go for it! NO (refine/resubmit)

No worries about maliciousness. We're dudes, bro-sister. This stuff's a blip in the bigger picture, so I'll probably split off any drama from the main thread, which is the progress of the Kickstarter. But since a lot of the talk is about how the site seemingly functions according to another large community and now Justin, who's a quality ReMixer and a part of this community also, I think it's fair to reply publicly and be upfront about it, messy as it is for bystanders sometimes. I think in his case, there was a misperception from him leading to him feeling slighted when he shouldn't have, but I'd rather address his points and hopefully hold hands later.

You don't know the fucking half of it. Let the drams roll! I had nothing to do with this situation, but I didn't realize there was a case of taking offense due to some sort of protocol we didn't follow for you. It seems like you've filled in the gaps with your own explanations or got really bad secondhand information to explain these situations to yourself. Sorry, but in creative communities, the development of everything isn't required to be broadcast to the public, even for you. We also made the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix soundtrack privately. Not everyone needed to know, that's just how it is. 1. This FF6 project started in late 2011, not 4 years ago, so that's not true. McVaffe and zircon compiled a list of people they had previously worked with (e.g. from Voices of the Lifestream) and invited them to the project. No politics involved in wanting to work with people you already have a good relationship with as the starting point. 2. This project has nothing to do with the other FF6 project on OCR. We didn't shut it down, so that's not true. When zircon saw that Prophecy (the director of the second FF6 project) was interested in starting one, zircon spoke to him and asked if he was interested in collaborating. He wasn't, so they decided to work on our projects separately and amicably. 3. No hate, we're cool (love playing Street Fighter with you; I always win), but I think you overreacted there. We ran a very public remix contest to get more people on board, and invited a whole group of new people on. If you weren't invited, that doesn't mean you're hated, you could have participated. zircon has also been messaged by people whose work was stellar and who he invited because they politely asked and expressed interest. If you weren't invited, you could have asked nicely to join up. It seems like you're more offended you weren't invited, as if someone inviting you was the most important protocol about this whole thing, thus "it's all politics" to explain it away. Seemingly, it was not on your radar or beneath you to try to get on the album by either participating in the contest or just asking zircon or McVaffe in a chat or email, and thus you "quit" OCR. Well, you didn't have to do all that, and I'm not sure why the protocol or formula of you being invited was the only way you'd be willing to join, but that's certainly one way to react. Morals differences over money or licensing was NOT one of the main reasons for the VGMix/OCR split at all, says djp: I was only a lurker in early 2002, but morals differences over money or licensing had 0 to do with the creation of VGMix. Neither OCR nor VGMix were advocating selling unofficial arrangements. Where did you even hear that? Whoever gave you that info is full of shit.

Noooo, I didn't get to bust out "I misspoke and I apologize!" :'-( EDIT: At the end of the day, people are going to claim bullshit things about the site and what the artists are creating. I can ignore the subjective comments, but I'm going to have to just ignore the ones that are framed as being objective and fact-based, even though they're not. Basically, this: "The FFVII album was mostly nonsense techno filth." http://twitter.com/atbigelow/status/223088927945400320 = Jon Kyl Tweets Not Intended to Be Factual Statements Stephen celebrates Jon Kyl's groundbreaking excuse-planation http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/381484/april-12-2011/jon-kyl-tweets-not-intended-to-be-factual-statements And that's no hate/drama redux on atbigelow, as there's no way I should have insulted him, but it's just acknowledging that sometimes e-people are going to say WHATEVER, facts be damned, and we're just gonna have to realize it's not necessarily grounded in any reality. So I overreacted, and took what was framed as factual at face value.

Thus replacing our idea to buy Cuban cigars for the staff. I'll miss 'em. :'-(

Except that's 100% wrong and we've never done that here. They're probably confusing us with KFSS Studios or OneUp Studios (Project Majestic Mix/SquareDance/Xenogears Light/etc) as far as sold Square arrangement albums. And those were licensed indirectly through services like Harry Fox, IIRC, as they were being sold for profit. Worth repeating, since I'm seeing the claim, but no one's being "paid" for this Kickstarter. The excess will go to improving the album (both the digital and physical), expanding what the supporters get for rewards, and then anything left would go for bandwidth/site costs long-term. No one is achieving personal gain with a cent of this fundraising money, otherwise we'd have musicians with pitchforks coming. We've not sold or profited from promoting free arrangements for 12+ years, but if you're going to complain about this as far as a Kickstarter, you might as well criticize what little we get from the Google AdSense ads. They don't make much money, but you could argue we're getting "paid" by Google, when everything is fed back into costs for the site (bandwidth, printing albums, promoting OCR and the albums that come out). If we can afford to do printed promotional copies of future albums after FF6 because of this Kickstarter, for example, it's worth it, but it would be used as a helpful cushion for future costs, not money that's being pocketed by staff or artists. Always annoying when fake hyperbolic stats get thrown out there. Anyway, this boils down to... *** "I couldn't play the game with this version in it." *** So what? That's not necessarily not the point of an interpretive arrangement. It's not designed to be dropped into the original game as a replacement for the original music, so no one should be looking at it that way. The point is to creatively interpret the game music with different ideas, oftentimes in new styles and genres. If you need something to sound like the original music, go listen to the original music. But it's silly to criticize the arrangements for something they're not trying to be. Truly spoken like someone who has absolutely no idea what music has been posted here, but spoken with conviction.