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Shadix

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    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I wonder what happens to the team? "Faster Than Light" and "THE SIGMA Force" that have not appeared in eight weeks? and I mean: Xarnax42, Jakesnke17 (DjjD), Ethan Rex and Theory of N.... I must say I am very concerned about it

    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.

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    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.

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Please keep in mind that right now, the draft, the submissions gathering, the encoding, tagging, and uploading; the voting, vote collection, and tallying; it's all done manually by either you guys or by me. There's very little that's automated about this process for gauntlets, and it's why scoring hasn't gone up yet (I have spreadsheets to help me tally but it's still some manual labor on my part to get everything in there).

     

    In my spare time, I'm working on a database-driven web application that will help me manage and automate practically everything having to do with the competitions I personally run on OCR. This is a large-scale, complicated software development project and I'm still in the data design phase of the whole thing. These kinds of ideas can certainly be incorporated into that, but it's a long ways off. I don't anticipate this application being done any time soon.

     

    It's also worth noting that the more complicated you make the voting process, the less likely people are to vote at all. VGMix had a lot of these problems with their review system. They attached scores and weights to reviews (through meta-ratings on reviews) which ended up intimidating people from participating, which led to a total crash of the entire system.

     

    Building the kind of things you're asking for into the current competition's scoring system is pie-in-the-sky; it sounds great and I understand the intent, but to be honest it's needlessly complicated for the purposes of this competition. If you're interested in detailed feedback about your track, please feel free to ask for specific feedback either here or in the Workshop forum.

     

    Nonetheless, I appreciate the comments and aware that feedback can be an issue. Perhaps next Gauntlet we do (rest assured, we will be doing one next year), we can have a one-week break in between blocks where people can be encouraged to review and dissect tracks from the previous three rounds. Maybe setting up a separate review thread per round could also be beneficial next time.

     

    On a related note, this December 18th will be 6 year anniversary of the first Grand Robot Master Remix Battle, which is the first of the large scale choose-your-theme competitions that everyone has enjoyed so much over the years. I'm happy to say that I've seen so many awesome artists who've either gotten started or gotten better by competing in these large scale events, many of them honing their skills to the point of going pro and making careers out of music. I'm not pretending to take any credit for any of that, but I will say that I'm proud of everyone that's given the compos a shot and have managed to push their skills higher and higher.

    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.

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    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.

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

     

    hah! I hadn't noticed that until you said something, but the opening drum hits are reminiscent of the Battle Theme and the Cyber Maze melody A reminds me a bit of the main melody in Zed's theme.

     

     

    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

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

     

    Usually its easiest to focus on the bass. When I hum the beginning into a tuner I get a D. It could change after the intro though. Only way to really know is figure out all the notes though and look at the scales to see if all the transcribed notes fit for the section you are looking at.

     

    Here is a useful link.

    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scottd/chords_and_scales/music.html

    Do the notes fit on any of these scales (Since you think it is F)?

    PS: To all the veteran musicians. Is this good advice / terrible advice? Do I know what I'm doing? I don't want to steer people wrong but if my system is wrong or can be improved I'd love to be enlightened.

     

    F Major F G A A# C D E F natural minor F G G# A# C C# D# F harmonic minor F G G# A# C C# E F melodic minor F G G# A# C D E F major pentatonic F G A C D F minor pentatonic F G# A# C D# F blues F G# A# B C D# F minor blues F G G# A# B C C# D# F major blues F G G# A A# B C D D# F augmented F G A B C# D# F diminished F G G# A# B C# D E F Phrygian-Dominant F F# A A# C C# D# F Dorian F G G# A# C D D# F Phrygian F F# G# A# C C# D# F Lydian F G A B C D E F Mixolydian F G A A# C D D# F Locrian F F# G# A# B C# D# F jazz melodic minor F G G# A# C D E F Dorian b2 F F# G# A# C D D# F Lydian augmented F G A B C# D E F Lydian b7 F G A B C D D# F Mixolydian b13 F G A A# C C# D# F Locrian #2 F G G# A# B C# D# F super Locrian F F# G# A B C# D# F whole half diminished F G G# A# B C# D E F half whole diminished F F# G# A B C D D# F enigmatic F F# A B C# D# E F double harmonic F F# A A# C C# E F Hungarian minor F G G# B C C# E F Persian F F# A A# B C# E F Arabian F G A A# B C# D# F Japanese F F# A# C C# F Egyptian F G A# C D# F Hirajoshi F G G# C C#

     

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

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I've never used the LA-3A emulated compressor, but have you tried just raising the volume with that off, or adjusting the compression settings on Pro-L? If you click "Advanced" under the Gain slider at the left, you should see settings for Lookahead, Attack, Release, etc. If it's Pro-L causing it, it should gradually help if you slowly and finely decrease the Release time.

     

    As for "rolling the bottom off", I actually do that too; on the Master track, I tend to high pass at about 30 Hz to eliminate most of the very low subs, since hardly ever do instruments go that far down.

    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.

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    When I listened to it (and please don't take offense to this), I felt confused as to whether theoretically, if the performance were to be live, the instrumentalists were aware of each other or just playing independently as if no one else was in the room. To me, it felt like the drums were too busy, and not particularly playing a beat that was cohesive with the rest of the instruments.

     

    If by "mix quality suffering" you mean it became overcompressed, then that tends to be due to the tolerance of your limiter. The free (FREE!) limiter I use, TLs-Pocket Limiter, is very tolerant, so I never (ever) have overcompression issues anymore (not since about 2012; what I watch out for instead these days is overcrowding, which is not a "pumping" feel, but just a cluttered feel). You may also want to take a look at FabFilter Pro-L, which I hear is a pretty fantastic (commercial) limiter.

     

    Does that help?

    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

     

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    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.

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    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.

    Mega Man X: The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet 2015

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Hey there, I'd like to be on Sir_NutS' team, and I choose the following mavericks:

     

    1. Shield Sheldon

    2. Frost Walrus

    3. Infinity Mijinion

    4. Cyber Peacock

    5. Slash Beast

    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.

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