Shadix

I've subbed each set for SIGMA FORCE. My teammates are plagued with pretty epic misfortunes. One had their compy die right before subbing, one had the power at his home get turned off for half a week. I've been listening to Bedlam in Goliath lately, so I might be cursed.

So I never noticed this before, but this source has the intro to my freaking maverick in the song. https://youtu.be/_6o-xXq4XwI?t=140

I'm sure I've asked this before, but why do people post source usage like its a metric? Perhaps this is just because I'm coming from an outside perspective and I'm around musicians a lot in my profession and go to magfest, but the concept seems confusing to me. Do you guys come up with your source usage while you are writing or is it kind of an after-the-fact thing? If its the former, writing to source usage like that seems like it would make creative expression rather difficult and rigid on a liberal side, and would distort the ability for a bystander to recognize the source from a conservative side. If it's the latter, why do so many of you guys compile this metric? It seems like songwriting, flow, arrangement, mixing quality, novelty factor, mastering, etc. would be the more important components of a mix than its source usage %, yet I see more people post that than I do the former. Kind of curious to learn the thinking behind it and why some of ya'll do it.

I enjoyed reading this more than you guys enjoyed participating in it.

I endorse this. Can we all just make parody entries for the rest of the compo?

Ah man I'm sorry dude, that was disrespectful of me to not consider the tremendous manual undertaking this contest is, or the factors that go into it. I'm kind of an outsider here so I'm going on surface level observations. That is really cool that you are still developing that competition system in your spare time. Also dude, I've said it before and I'll say it again, these contests are an amazing thing that you orchestrate and I know people have really grown and gone places from all the hard work you've put in helping out. Have nothing but respect for you and what you do Darke. Superior X: Great points. This situation is more complex than I imagined. In addition I'm having a strange deja vu that I probably presented a similar idea during the Wily Gauntlet and have just forgotten about all these factors involved. KingTiger: That idea is great! Hey Darke, what if we just had threads for each round just for feedback? I can help peel through the thread if you want and collect reviews and we could maybe encourage people in the op to come at it from different angles if they want to? What do you think? Trying to think of something that would be as little strain on you as the event organizer as possible.

Hey Darke, I have a crazy idea for future competitions like this that might be unfeasible but I wanted to drop it by you anyways. Obviously my entry this week was a joke, but I noticed with the way the voting is set up that there is an opportunity to make this a more rewarding experience for everyone involved. It'd be interesting to see something where people could rate a mix out of 5 based on different categories, like production, arrangement, source usage, mastering, etc. Maybe bring in one of the OC superstars that aren't participating in the competition like BGC, Zircon, Will Roget, yourself etc every now and then to give some external professional insight on the mixes on a round. Either just adding this to their top 3 picks of creating a simple form for people to check box out. It would allow people to see where their mix falls short and the areas people liked. Right now, and I had this happen with the Wily competition too, but it kinda feels like you submit your track into a blender and its not heard from again unless you happen to get voted for or participate in the listening party. Luckily people volunteer feedback in the thread, but you kinda have to hunt for it. Its why my team mates dropped after the first one and I think thats why people might struggle to be motivated to keep submitting with the long format nature of this competition. The consistent feedback could help everyone improve on each other and know what areas they should focus on. Under the current voting scheme its extremely unclear what qualities people liked in a track or why they prioritize certain tracks over others, because different people are listening for different things, but the system doesn't really give any insight into what those things are. Overall, introducing a more categorical system for voting I feel would be beneficial to OCR as an organization as well because it can help you guys refine your content creators to publish the highest quality of mixes. There are a lot of really talented folks in here that have areas, that, with proper focus could turn them into truly top tier composers/musicians. I'm no exception. If any of those guys go on to become great film\tv\game composers, you guys can take pride in knowing you helped foster that talent.

Cyber Core Maze reminds me of Touhou music. This is reflected with the direction of my entry. Ironically, I discovered after making my entry that this actually IS touhou music. This is too meta for me

I have been trying to find this page again for months. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Some stay dry, while others feel the pain.

*poker face*

Jameson Sutton - The Sigma Force Red Shifting Drift (Boomer Kawanger in Doppler Stage 1 [X3]) Just Give Me a Minute (Storm Eagle in Doppler Stage 1 [X3]) Beetle Dopplerganger (Ground Scaravich in Doppler Stage 1 [X3])

I was using it to try and smooth the transients out before the limiter because if you just throw everything in the limiter you end up getting an incredible amount of disgusting distortion trying to reach the same level of loudness. I should check to see how much GR its actually doing though. I dunno this has been a problem that has plagued me for literally 3 years now and doing things the "proper way" and trying to be minimalistic on the master hasn't really given me the right sound, so right now I'm trying to use things perhaps too liberally trying to see if I can find that happy medium. I really appreciate your feedback Timaeus, I'll look into my limiting settings more closely.

Its running through Pro-L and an LA-3A emulator. I have a feeling the latter might be whats causing some of the problem. The strange part is like, if you listen to most modern rock its smashed even harder than what I did. I reference mastered this one. Maybe I didnt roll enough of the bottom off? Hmm

Hey I was going to ask, does anyone (especially the rocker types like DusK, Tuberz, jnWake, etc) have any advice on how I could improve the mix on the track I entered (Winter Weather Advisory)? While trying to get it loud I noticed that the mix quality kind of started suffering a bit. I was trying to do a mars volta\reign of kindo type of thing with it. Would really appreciate any advice you talented chaps could provide.

Jameson Sutton - The Sigma Force Red Shifting Drift (Boomer Kawanger in Doppler Stage 1 [X3]) MMMDop (Slash Beast in Doppler Stage 1 [X3]) Beetle Dopplerganger (Ground Scaravich in Doppler Stage 1 [X3])

nb4 im schooled by usa. Edit: oh... Usa didn't even go this week. :E Edit2: I see like EVERYBODY decided to emphasis Doppler's stage this week. Fancy. Edit3: The talent this competition is absurd. So many great tracks this week. Congratulations everyone.

It fits into your style though imo.

BLIZZARD WOLFANG IT IS ON. Man, I secretly wanted that one almost more than my #1 after posting it because I started getting all these zany mix ideas for it. Also, some of my favorite tunes were given to pretty amazing remixers. This is going to be insane! Can't wait to see what SuperiorX does with Volt Kraken.

Wouldn't this potentially be more fitting? XD

I'm really hyped to figure out what tracks everyone got. When I did the Wily Gauntlet, I was excited because the premise was awesome, however the regular Megaman games don't have a lot of nostalgic power with me because I never played them growing up. The playstation MMX games though were my jam. I'm excited not just to find out what I'm remixing, but to get to hear all these talented peoples takes on some of my favorite VGM music.

Just fyi we're on the case. Trying to find you some people to collaborate with.

Woah. YOU GOT FREAKING USABELL ON YOUR TEAM SIRNUTS? I'm terrified and unbelievably excited at the same time. Talk about a blast from the past. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with Usa. Edit: To people who don't know Usa, he might be the only saiyan amongst us that is capable of turning Super Saiyan 3. He can write sonic masterpieces by blinking, and was an unstoppable force in the one hour compo circle.

Hey Darkesword... What happens if ALL of your picks are somebody's #1? Do you do a second runoff? Or do you use a different method to determine who gets what?