Level 99

It's bLiNd. What more can one ask for? Personally, at this moment, I still prefer Golbez simply because of how I did NOT expect it to turn out the way you did it, making it that much more awesome. BUT. B-U-T. This one is still awesome. Listening to it in the car really gives my speakers a workout from the low end sexiness you put in there. Listening on headphones, however, shows how much you worked that stereo with the delays and pans. There's a lot of layering but it never becomes overwhelming or incomprehensible. Stellar production and intelligent instrument choices. Really, I can't say much more than exactly what Liontamer said. It's the hotness.

You've definitely spoiled me in the past with some tremendously out-there arrangements always with that chippy, synthy Swedish charm that I've come to expect from both you and AnSo. The drawback is that ones like this, that take a little while to build up speed, feel a little less spectacular in comparison. So while not your best track, this is still quite a good one. Favorite part is right after minute 2 when you switch the section you're doing. The panning feels a little disparate between sides, which creates points of strength and weakness depending on what instruments are playing at any given moment. Interesting but I wasn't the biggest fan of that choice this time around. The attention to detail for the glitchy chip noises somewhat compensates but doesn't fully negate the panning issue. Overall, a cool new take on the source, and while not the best display of your skills, it is still catchy and quirky. PS. Needs moar cello.

...and another song that sounds unbelievably Deus-Ex-y. Must have something to do with the source tune. First thing I noticed, besides how calming it started, was the unique use of drum delay-panning. I have to say I love it. On top of that, you've meshed the synthetic noises with what sounds like sampled live strings (at some points it sounds like you traded them in for a really crisp high-boosted string synth). Fantastic soundscape throughout, with top notch production. The whole song is just smooth and awesome. It just feels a tad too short. It's easily loopable as a song, so I will definitely be putting it on repeat, but I really hoped for another section or two. Great stuff. Need more. Now.

Opening is VERY Deus-Ex-y. Love the added chimes, and the vibe you immediately create is awesome. You always pick your synths and instruments well, and there is no change from that habit here. The subtle pads are unbelievably deep, here and throughout the rest of the song. Only thing is I wasn't a fan of the snare you picked for the build, but chalk that up to personal preference. Nice first section, and the string pads really hold it as it goes soft again before the next section. That high chime...I can't get enough of it. The whole arrangement is fluid and smooth. The "factory" noise you used for the snare after the second section runs is something I am fond of. There's quite a lot of layering, delay, and variation throughout, but it all holds together as one great song. Your other songs have been mostly great in their own right for uniqueness, but this one is an absolute showcase to attention to detail and subtlety. Easily one of my favorites of yours so far. *smacks dat ass*

I'm not the most familiar with the source tune, but this has guitars. And I like guitars. That's probably a big surprise right there. First thing I noticed is that you definitely nailed the mixing between the guitars, bass, and drums. Guitar tone is very nice, and only during a part or two of the solo did I notice any tuning issues, and they were extremely minor. Drums could have a had a bit more flair to them, though they're definitely adequate. Try to use the toms a bit more, especially during some transition fills, and the song won't feel as repetitive. And that's my only big issue with the song: repetition. It's definitely good, but follows the wash-rinse-repeat without much change, either evident or subtle, until the solo comes in. Seems like it's on cruise control, with the attitude of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The result is a song that's great on first listen, but isn't very repeatable. I still enjoyed it, and the guitar performance was very good. Nice first mixpost and I look forward to hearing how and where you improve for the next one.

I call this move the finish-and-submit. BUMP! Do it, dude. Listened in the car with Val yesterday and we decided you need to wrap this. PM me/IM me and I will hurl medieval insults at you.

Aggressive, with hints of Primus all over the place, interspliced with alterna-rock and metal, this album is in a style that I honestly haven't heard much done well with lately. As a first release, damn this is a great start. I'll have a song-by-song review up soon!

Studio is all set up. Corner of the man cavern (basement) Closer up: And just for perspective, the rest of the basement: Edit: also, Snapple, I noticed we use the same MXL mic. Nice! Edit Edit: TMF128 also has the same guitar I do!

I loved the Mario movie. It's good to know that King Koopa from the movie can now face Live-Action Mario from the TV show in that big ol' Star Road in the sky. continuity and canon be damned Missing ya, Mr. Hopper.

CONGLATURATION !!! YOU HAVE MARRIED A GREAT GIRL. AND PROOVED THE JUSTICE OF OUR CULTURE. NOW GO AND REST OUR NEWLYWEDS! *raises his glass*

In terms of tagging, I did a quick mockup of standard podcast XML for RSS feeds. Just so you could see the logical placement of things: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>OverClocked ReMix</title> <description>This is the podcast feed of all remix posts on OverClocked ReMix. Visit the site for music, albums, forums, and more! Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.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.</description> <link>http://ocremix.org</link> <itunes:category text="Music"> <itunes:category text="Video Games" /> </itunes:category> <copyright>See the Terms of Use for copyright information. http://ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy</copyright> <language>en-us</language> <lastBuildDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 13:30:10 -0500</lastBuildDate> <pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 13:30:10 -0500</pubDate> <itunes:subtitle>Free video game ReMixes in a variety of styles and genres, by hundreds of musicians, from hundreds of games!</itunes:subtitle> <itunes:summary> Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.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. Visit the site for music, albums, forums, and more! http://ocremix.org/ </itunes:summary> <itunes:keywords>audio, music, video, game, remix, free</itunes:keywords> <itunes:author>OC ReMixers</itunes:author> <itunes:owner> <itunes:email>djp@ocremix.org</itunes:email> <itunes:name>OC ReMix</itunes:name> </itunes:owner> <itunes:image href="http://blog.philstrahl.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/20060212_oc-remix_thumb.png" /> <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit> <!-- <item> <title>djpretzel - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Sturm und Kong</title> <link>http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02001/</link> <enclosure url="http://iterations.org/files/music/remixes/Donkey_Kong_Country_2_Sturm_und_Kong_OC_ReMix.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" ></enclosure> <pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 13:30:10 -0500</pubDate> <itunes:subtitle>djpretzel - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Sturm und Kong</itunes:subtitle> <itunes:summary>djpretzel - Sturm und Kong. OCR02001, ReMix of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - K. Rool Returns (Title Theme), by David Wise. Nintendo, 1995, SNES.</itunes:summary> <itunes:duration>3:30</itunes:duration> <itunes:keywords>audio, music, video, game, remix, free, album, electronica, instrumental, orchestral, synths</itunes:keywords> <itunes:author>djpretzel</itunes:author> <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit> </item> Now, what is key is the inclusion of the link to the actual ReMix, because even if the tagging were to pass for the podcast, it will not have the same fields and placement as the traditionally distributed mixes do. However, it still gets the music out, and includes all the important information. Should be searchable, too. I checked around and there's a bunch of sites that send out free music via podcast feed, though none with as many as OCR'd be doing. I can talk with Brushfire about possibly doing a test with our own RSS feed, posting up an OCR song with tagging, testing it, and then removing, and seeing what happens, if need be.

Nice work, Jay. Incredible first solo-mixpost. It's clear you have a huge passion for the game, and you poured your heart into this mix. Explains the long length of it as well, and how many different themes you incorporated. Not much to say. "Epic", while over-used, fits the description well. It's almost theatric in it's scale, as it could easily pass as movie production music. Awesome work. *thumbs up*

Man, I've never heard of this game before, and now I feel like I missed something incredible growing up. My poor childhood ;_; At this point, I'd be very very surprised if Dr. Man-Hat-Anne,MD, made a song that I didn't enjoy. This is absolute DRIVING music, or if you have a horse, RIDING music. There were parts where I feel more could be going on, and more interpretation would have suited (particularly the semi-inactive second verse and the section right before the solo), but everything else besides that is beastly. Even those two problem sections detract from the song as whole, and the guitar tones you used throughout made my pants a little tighter than usual. The twangy clean-crunch...I want that setting. And I want it RIGHT NOW. I'm aware of the issues the J's bring up about the brass samples, but they're not the spotlight of the mix anyways, and simply because their timing and velocity is dead-on, I find myself enjoying them a lot. Also, Mexican Hat Dance = awesome. Caught me off-guard, almost dropping my Chihuahua, my Burrito. I'm doomed if it caused my bandoleer to come loose! Fantastic song, and you better keep making them. Or else I'll go hire Lee Van Cleef to keep you in line!

Thought about this in the car, talked briefly in IRC about it, did a little research and here's where I ended up: OC ReMix isn't distributed over iTunes because it can't be added to the iTunes store. From my limited understanding, this is because the music we make can't technically be sold, and a) there's no way to sell a song for free in the iTunes store plus there are costs associated with having an iTunes artist account. So anyone who wants to add their OC ReMix music to iTunes has to add it themselves, either after downloading mixes/albums separately from the web servers or getting the torrents. Would it be possible for OC ReMix to set up an iTunes user account, and create a podcast that is in the iTunes store? It looks to me that the rules for the store related to podcasts is the same as it is for any free content online (fair use, right to distribute, blah blah blah - basically, the same rules that OC ReMix has been running under for a long time). Podcasts themselves are always free; iTunes does not allow people to charge for it. Each podcast would be a posted mix from the site. Podcasts in the iTunes store are merely directory listings and organized download management - the RSS needed for podcast listing, as well as the media associated, are all hosted somewhere else. OC ReMix already has the file mirrors for posted mixes, so that's really not an issue, I would think. The RSS would get updated every time a new mix is posted. This would solve a number of issues all at the same time. It would allow people who can't use torrents to get the whole current collection of songs. It would automatically keep that collection organized based on the preference of the person subscribing (ie. keep only mixes for the last 30 days, etc). It would cut out the middle step for adding downloaded mixes to the iTunes library from the web or torrents. I haven't tried it yet on my podcast feed, but I'm assuming that if someone deletes an item from the RSS, it wouldn't show up for any new people subscribing or updating (useful for when/if a mix is removed from the site for some reason). The only issue I can think of would possibly be a tagging one (source/artist crediting, sufficient fields for sort, and others I'm probably overlooking). Assuming that tagging ends up not being a problem, I would hope this is something that could be pursued in the near future. I know it would make a lot of people happy!

And just because we couldn't give you enough, here's Part 2 (Episode 25.5). Featuring My Immortal chapters 30-34, and our wrap up from last week with a few more mixes. It is absolute awesome because Cyril gets quite drunk on the air for his birthday. Episode 25.5 - Subtle Unpleasant Lamp Birthday Part 2 (featuring My Immortal Chapters 30-34) "If you download games illegally, your dog is going to DIE."

Don't forget PrototypeRaptor and whoever Drayzon is! I think I like Palpable's method the best, but there's room for improvement: why not wish everyone on happy birthdays for ALL of the birthdays for the rest of their life? EFFICIENT!

Additional birthdays of happy I say.

I come for the funny, I stay for the awesome. Well, you started the topic! I'll just come up with the graph in my mind. I was also going to point out that, even if one buys a PS2 for $40, they're not going to get the quality they want out of current HDTVs. In my humble opinion, and unless my old eyes deceive me, pretty much all standard def signals look like complete arse on any HDTVs. Considering that's the majority of market selection available these days (unless you're shopping used, or something really small, you're 95% going to get an HDTV), buying a PS2 wouldn't be the wisest investment unless you're planning on running it on an older TV. http://hdgames.net/ Go here and sort through how many PS2 games support 480p (there is one game, maybe two games, that support 1080i on the PS2). A modest amount, but consider how many people complain about the Wii only supporting 480p. Definitely better than 480i, especially on HDTVs, but it's not what people want. For the PS2 emulating the PS1, the signal being sent was still on the same standards at the time. PS3 running PS2 came as the shift to higher resolutions was heavily moving, so the situation is quite different. And for those who snoop around, there IS a retail un-Sony disc that forces the PS2 to run at specific HD resolutions regardless of what the game indicates. 1) it doesn't work with all, or many, games. 2) when it does work, it's glitchy or just ups the display resolution, not the render resolution (causing stutter or not even stretching the display to match the signal). PS3: It only does everything (except play PS2 games, and if it does, it doesn't upscale the render) /endrant I'll be watching eagerly now to see what develops out of any PCSX2 endeavor to run on PS3.

EDIT: Uploaded Episode! Episode 25 - Subtle Unpleasant Lamp Birthday Part 1 Yup. It's officially a two-parter. Part 1 this morning, you filthy apes. Have a Subtle Unpleasant Lamp Birthday. Brushfire is right: we just need to finish what we started. We realize it's not EVERYONE's cup of tea...well, no one's cup of tea in fact. But nobody likes a quitter. And we have to seal the demon we unleashed when we started. We thank you for understanding.

http://nerdyshow.com/?p=1634 Oh god. Nerdy show uploaded the Appendix to their episode with Chapters 22-29 of My Immortal. This means we're clear to release OCAD 25 between tonight and tomorrow night. http://myimmortalrehost.webs.com/chapters122.htm http://myimmortalrehost.webs.com/chapters2344.htm

Very, VERY tempted to get the silver for under $100. Just a question: does anyone have EastWest Quantum Leap Voices of Passion? If so, is it worth it for $200? I have a soft spot for ethnic vocals...

Alright! Deadline is a week away! GO GO GO!

Yes, we have all the parts of Ep 25 in...but it's probably gonna be a split episode. It's very VERY long. Also, I hear that it's going to be some major work to restore the website. I might throw something together very very fast in frontpage just to service you folks. Probably won't be shownotes or anything if it gets made, but it will be at least SOMETHING. Unless Deven can perform a miracle quicker.

It was one of the ways they reduced functionality in order to reduce the price of the PS3. Logically, it made sense: Including the hardware, as the 20/60gb launch PS3's had, is one of the ways the price was jacked up. Running the software emulation reduced compatibility with many more PS2 titles, and supporting that with further firmware updates is more money spent on the developers parts. Essentially, in Sony's eyes, it's probably seen as both aiding emulation enthusiasts by doing their job for them, as well as product cannibalization (buying one sony product instead of two, which takes money out of their pockets). http://www.hardcoreware.net/playstation-3-80gbs-ps2-backwards-compatibility-sucks/ Just to illustrate the point of reduced software support. Chipp, can you make a handy-dandy circle graph showing how many games it supports for the PS2, or is that not possible? Just for my own personal interest, actually. Chances of Sony ever bringing back software emulation for PS3 is slim to none, and slim is drunk dangling off the balcony.

O_O CURSE YOU, EAST COAST! We may get more so-called meetups, but when stuff like this happens...GAH! I'll be there in spirit, that lineup looks awesome.