Level 99

I hope you all like vocals.

Absolute truest thing ever. No way to predict this kind of thing. Xenon's right about not starting too high, but also not selling yourself short. Do you know how much total music they're expecting out of you?

I have such fond memories of this game, being a Saturn kid and all. I remember only correctly doing the Akuma code ONCE out of probably a thousand tries, so I am very familiar with this theme. Translating to a guitar-based mix is a great choice, however, there are a number of things you should address regardless of whether or not you would want this as a sub-worthy song: 1) The mix kinda...just...starts. It is actually kind of jolting. Even if you want the rock right in your face immediately, you need to give the listeners a chance to get used to the volume level and somewhat brace for impact. Starting with some flashy drums for a measure or half a measure should do the trick, and allow for the timing of the first guitars to not seem so sudden. It would probably do well considering the original starts with drums, just take that and basically make it more elaborate and rocky then BAM, guitars just happened. 2) The mix sounds too close to the original as of right now. It has pretty much the same feel, except for the guitars and the new section you added. The new section, while nice, needs to be a bit more elaborate. 3) Drums need some major work. There's practically zero transition from section A to section B and back. Furthermore, the sound could be improved with either a new kit or more selective processing on each drum. 4) Is your current arrangement live guitars or sampled? The timing offsets tell me they're live but copiously repeated. If they're live, consider doing multiple takes of the same sections so that things don't sound as static. If they're not live, then I would HIGHLY recommend getting a live guitarist for this. 5) If you want your arrangement to become more sub-worthy, I would think that another original section where you change the basic chord structure would be good, happening after the second B section. Section C, as we'll call it, could act like a bridge and differentiate the arrangement considerably. Right now, I would think your fully fleshed-out arrangement could be something like this: Intro -> Section A -> Section B -> Section A with solo wankery integrating melodies from various COTA stages -> Section B with solo wankery integrating melodies from various COTA stages -> Section C (Bridge) -> Breakdown and Buildup -> Section A -> Ending Those solo wankery areas would be a perfect spot to put solos that include integration of other areas of the soundtrack, making things both more original AND more source-referenced at the same time 6) Can't tell with my current headphones but what are you using for bass? 7) We can talk about overall production after your arrangement quirks have been worked out. Don't be discouraged: I listed a lot that can be improved and changed but you have a solid foundation and picked a great sourcetune. Excited to hear where you can take this.

Ouch! Really sorry to hear the Blackjack didn't work out for you. Speaking now, I still have the Focusrite Saffire 6 USB and it is as solid as the day I bought it. It is now on two powered monitors that sound great, so my vouching for that device is definitely valid. However, for anyone considering ANY USB devices, I highly encourage you to check here before you do: http://raincomputers.com/windows-watch/ This is a list of many professional-grade audio interfaces, along with their current driver support. It also lists many VSTs and plugins. Strange, though, that here it lists the Mackie Onyx series as having full support. The USB 1.1-issue I can't speak for, but the device just literally refused to load in ASIO mode with the vanilla Blackjack driver? Edit: Just saw the thread on the Mackie support boards that you actually commented on. I went googling to see if the issue was prevalent anywhere else. That is a low-down, dirty shame that they have basically admited that their Windows 7 x64 driver doesn't work and yet they refuse to remove the Windows 7 x64 listing from the supported operating systems list.

In not so many words, yes.

The answer as to why this even exists is deceptively simple: business. Look at how much money the Disney tween-aged musicians pull in? There are millions and millions of children with parents who have disposable income. These are the parents that will buy stuff to make their child happy, and many parents blindly assume that they can leave the Disney channel on and have their child zone out to quality programming without having to worry about inappropriate words or subject matter coming on. These kids aspire towards stars that are their age or close to it, and any relative perspective on talent is negated by supreme overproduction to make it as enjoyable and catchy as possible. I took a look at Ark Music Factory's other artists. Notice a pattern there? All tweens or teens, all females (at least on the first page), and all seemingly unoffensive. Fastest way to make a quick buck is pick a random relatively-not-unattractive and/or unassuming-looking girl (I shudder at what pedos must think looking at a page like that. *shudder* no bueno), make a song about something that has relevance to what kids in middle school and high school go through, autotune the fuck out of it since the majority of these people can't sing, produce it to a mirror shine, then push it out and sell it. Seriously, give a producer a couple hours or so and they can make songs like this. Rama even proved it in a lulz-y kind of way. And even if the video is notoriously bad, look at how many views, tweets, facebook posts, and general media attention it has gotten. There is no such thing as bad publicity, because all publicity is attention. This song has likely gotten more airtime than all OC ReMixes combined. Just to put it into perspective, Rebecca Black's official Friday video right now has 16,457,921 views on youtube. That's the equivalent of a 16x platinum single if it were actual song sales.

That's what mothers do, sir. Honestly, at this point, the more people that leave the country that could potentially help in the current rescue/rebuild environment, the longer it is going to take to get things back on their feet. Obviously, if there's the threat of another sure-fire disaster then people should evacuate, but as long as that nuclear reactor remains relatively safe, the focus should be on the reconstruction efforts.

Ah, the capsfilter is a harsh mistress, ain't she? Episode 52 - They Look Like Aliens Stevo, David, Brian, and Wildfire just chit-chat it up and play treadmillasaurus rex. It is super-fun times, as usual.

Sure, you can use mah shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Nope, I'm not. At least, not yet. I don't really have the inclination to play on this one just yet, however would like to be whitelisted just-in-case. MC name is Level99. I has a skin that looks like I'm wearing an OCR shirt.

I FIXED IT! Horray!

Ass Slam, no other word for it. SLAM DAT ASS.

ITT we are now talking about inside jokes from PAXEast 2011.

The obsidian island was my doing. It was a philosophical message that this temporary server be as stable as the obsidian upon which you spawn, and that it be only an island as the continent proper of OCADia is fixed and returned to normal. Indeed, embrace this one as if the other was gone forever, but keep up the hope that the giant bridge and whatnot shall return. As to what happened, I've seen issues where illegalstance instances cause things to break, but never embeded into the java files. The server executable itself can generate new worlds and run them just fine, even using previous files (such as the properties and list files). The issue is coming from how the world files (.MCR) are being read and processed by the app. Something got bugged in the world layout, and I think that figuring out a way to edit, or at the very least roll-back, some of the world data could fix the issue. I am going to take the broken bundle and email notch + crew, plus probably make a post on their forums, so the people who already might have some knowledge of the issue can go take a look. If anyone else is interested in the broken server files and wants to take a look, let me know and I'll upload it and post it for people to get.

So, the minecraft server had an issue last night that basically caused it to completely break for now. New server is up and running at the same address, same general config, but none of the world is the same. I will be debugging the java.lang.nullPointerException myself hopefully soon and figuring out how to unbrick it all, because the world is still there but trying to run it results in a crash. Feel free to play the new server in the meantime, and many apologies about the inconvenience.

Darkesword, a former instrument and controls technician at a nuclear power station, says qft

"when it's done" and then a little bit after that

I already told Brushfire, but I guess he forgot, but we are absolutely going to be here. OCAD Nerdy Show crossover LIVE! Edit: Also, Vilecat will be coming with me.

Acoustic guitars with string support, but still good: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02085/

Sony now has permission to identify every IP that has visited Geohot's website in the last two years. I'm stunned. Seriously.

You see, I'm torn about checking this out, simply because I like to leave any knowledge I have to use for my work-work AT work-work. Hearing talks about finite-state machines makes me immediately think this is some edugame trying to farm my brain! But no, seriously, any game that demands more brainpower and makes that extra exertion enjoyable is a game doing something right. Will probably check out the demo.