The Vagrance

Well there are few MGS remixes just because the original soundtrack is so good, its hard to top. As for Metroid Fusion...I'm working on a Metroid remix already but I may be able to do something with the main theme of Fusion. I'll keep you posted if I do.

DJ Fresh helped them out a lot with their style and especially with marketing. They collaborated with a large number of artists who had similar sounds to theirs, such as Bulletproof and Fresh. They were also members of Dogs on Acid before they struck it big and were occasional posters on The Grid forum. DnB is a tiny, tight-knit genre where the producers and DJs interact fairly regularly with their fans and otherwise. They (specifically El Hornet) used to play Counter-Strike with other members of the forum. The first sign of them being whiney was when DJ Fresh released Junglesound Gold, which included the Masochist VIP by them. They apparently didn't want this and posted on their myspace and on the forum that they didn't approve of the album and had a public feud with Fresh until their lawyers shut them up. They were also criticized fairly heavily for Slam and Blood Sugar around this time and started whining a bunch, talking about how shallow DnB is and how they are great because they are influenced by Led Zeppelin. It ended how pretty much all forum feuds end: with a huge bitch-out about how misunderstood they are and saying that they were never going back again (which it took them actually the second or third time for that to be true). The main thing they've contributed to DnB has been dubbed the "pendu-snare", which is that fat snare sound that quite a few people are using now. The only notable copycats I'd be willing to point out would be Sub Focus and The Qemists, as Fresh had been doing a similar style as Pendulum around the same time as Pendulum. Its not that I mind DnB artists doing something different than DnB (Adam F has produced rap tracks, Noisia is doing their House/Breaks thing as is Spor and Evol Intent, there are quite a few dubstep sideprojects, etc.) but Pendulum is simply bad at what they're doing. They're just as, if not more guilty of repeating the same sound over and over again with their atypical drums and cheesy lead synth, and the rock aspect sounds slapped on at best. Rob Swire is also an average vocalist at best. The thing that a lot of people don't get is the complexity behind those "simple Arabian scales." DnB is largely about subtlety, with the exception of Jump-Up and that grimy Darkstep stuff. The melody is sometimes secondary; you have to listen to the vibe of the track. Liquid is all about this. Its one thing to try to show melody in electronic music, but too often electronic artists feel the need to have it blaring on a lead going, "LOOK! HERE IS THE MELODY!" The best electronic music has always had a sense of subtlety and refinement to it. Matrix, Calibre, Noisia (The Distance is a perfect example), D Kay, Dom & Roland, Teebee, Photek, Ed Rush & Optical, Black Sun Empire, and many more have all done this. Even old Pendulum was this way (Vault and the Spiral are still great). Their songs have lost their depth though, its all whiney-synth with the same damn drums from every other song. Pendulum's not the only one to have non-DnB influences. In fact, the best DnB artists have gone on record saying that they try not to listen to too much DnB. Also, Pendulum wasn't the first to use original vocals. Most, if not, all of the vocals on Danny Byrd's new album were completely original, Fresh has used vocals, and Roni Size and Reprazent had MC Dynamite who rapped over most of the tracks (not to mention guest vocals on a number of tracks). Pendulum got popular because they have easily hummable melodies, the way most artists get popular. Problem is, their songs have no depth and will not stand the test of time. Two years later and Slam is as annoying as ever, yet Voyager is still a heavy track. Pendulum is no different from any other mainstream artist, they took something good and cheesed it up. You may think all DnB sounds the same, and thats fine, but once you hit that threshold where everything in DnB makes sense, then you'll appreciate DnB that much more.

I wasn't going to say anything abut Overcoat's post but you echoed my thoughts. I lost mad respect for them from Hold Your Colour onward, especially considering their bitch-out with Breakbeat Kaos/DJ Fresh and later the dogsonacid forum. Really they're a whiney bunch with far less talent than they perceive, though they did push for a level of production values DnB had not really seen before then and everything before Another Planet was ace (HYC was a good album but quite a few stinkers), but they rejected the scene that raised them and refused to acknowledge those that helped them get as far as they have. For good DnB, The Qemists are great. Really though, Spor and Noisia still have some of the best mixdowns in any genre I've heard. Danny Byrd's new album is also pretty sweet. There's also Sub Focus and DJ Fresh for tunes similar in vein to Pendulum. /rant Pendulum happens to be like, one of two artists who I can't stand (the other being Kanye West).

There are quite a few more laidback rappers as well that you might like. MF DOOM has a rambling style that a lot of people (myself included) seem to like. Gift of Gab is incredibly rhythmically solid and his work as a part of Blackalicious is wholly excellent. Saul Williams is an interesting rapper in the sense that he doesn't really rap all of the time, he does a lot of spoken-word styled stuff. He was the guy who released an album for free that was produced by Trent Reznor (The Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust). If you haven't checked out most of the videos in this thread then by all means look at some of them. You may also just never be able to get into rap music, which is completely fine as well. I can't really think of a modern pop song that shows any improvisational skills, yet alone good ones. Being a giant fan of The Mars Volta though, I do have to recommend you check them out. A lot of their music is based heavily on improvisation in both their live shows and albums. They are a bit hard to get into and it seems to be either you love 'em or hate, but they're still worth a listen. If you can make it through Cassandra Gemini all the way through your first try then you're a trooper. Squarepusher is also worth a look-see. His albums - especially Ultravisitor - have quite a bit of improvisational elements in them, especially on his song Iambic 9 Poetry where he basically improvises with himself on multiple instruments.

The new Common song is incredibly BA as well: Also, this song has a pretty sweet play on the whole gun talk thing thats big right now. Its not mainstream by any means but its incredibly ill, except for MF DOOM who seems to be asleep and mumbling the whole time (although Gift of Gab's verse more than makes up for it):

Dumbing things down is a natural process of various societal objects and functions. The more dumbed down it is, the easier it is to consumed in a half-assed manner. Artsy films scream to be analyzed, beautiful music requires multiple listens to appreciate all of the subtlety, White Chicks points out that white people sometimes act differently than black people. I used to line up perfectly with your views, until I realized something. Some people like mainstream music because: 1. They genuinely like it 2. They don't know about anything better 3. They don't want complexity 4. They don't care nearly as much about music as you (or I) Some people listen to music as a passive thing, it doesn't really matter to them that much in their lives. Have you ever watched b-boys (breakdancers)? If you don't know much about it, then pretty much anything they do is cool, even though a lot of it may be very basic stuff. Same goes for novels (explains the popularity of the Twilight series), art, cooking, and pretty much any other artform. If it doesn't matter that much in our life, then the shallow stuff probably won't bother you that much.

While I do agree that someone cannot be called stupid solely on the choice of the music they listen to, they are differences between good music and bad music and there are different ways to judge the quality of music. Chord structure, originality, arrangement, etc. are al up for analysis. Hell, if no one song is better than the other then every submission to OCR should be accepted. Guidelines do exist. I disagree with the notion that there are not guidelines to judge music upon, however, I do agree with the statement that not everyone wants to hear "intelligent" music. Some people subscribe to the idea of "If I like it, then I'll buy it" and thats perfectly fine. I also agree with this statement. There are people out there that no matter what argument is presented to them, they will refuse to listen and talk about the "good ol' days". That said, if someone is too close-minded to realize that quality music is still being made nowadays that is no less groundbreaking than 20-30 years ago, then thats there problem. Just because something is one thing to someone doesn't mean that its the same thing for someone else. Do you love your grandmother? Grandfather? Parents? Someone? I'm sure there's someone that you love and care deeply for, and thats nice. Even if I met you in person and we became best friends, I'm sure that said loved one will never mean more to me than to you, and thats perfectly fine. Saying that music is "just culture" is like saying that any artform is "just culture"; that love and pain are "just neural impulses", that video games are "just toys." When it comes to art and feeling, a lot more is subjective. Liking certain types of music isn't about the exclusivity of it, its about enjoying the music. Simple enough. You must come from a small town then, or maybe I'm just used to the musical atmosphere of Nashville because quite a few people I know that are my age care about chord structures and production values. Thats how bands are formed. Music is whatever one wants it to be, otherwise everything is bleak and miserable. Cooking doesn't matter because it will be digested. Paintings don't matter because they are slabs with random assortments of colour on them. Dancing is just flailing around in a timely matter. If you can't stop to reallze the beauty of different arts, then at least respect those who do. Thats usually a sign that you shouldn't submit it.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the work done by all of the remixers on this soundtrack. The quality of work done by all of you is outstanding and this is probably the best way possible to represent the community. Well done sirs and madams(?). P.S. - Good god AE is a monster.

I'm going to be honest, I can tell the difference between an mp3 and a lossless formant. That said, its harder to tell the difference between different bitrates of mp3s and honestly the difference isn't a huge deal breaker but considering the increasingly lo-fi quality music that is being passed around there simply needs to be full-on lossless music that exists out there. Even if the average user can't tell the difference the point is that there is, in fact, a difference and accepting an mp3 as an equal of lossless is shallow-sighted. Converting to FLACs and tagging them will take maybe an hour or so, and from that point forward it is made available for people to have in whatever format they want in whatever quality they want. This is OCR's first big project, let's try to do it right.

Ok, so I'm not much of a rapper but that hasn't stopped me from trying. I'm not thoroughly convinced of my skills so I'd rather have people who aren't me judge me...such as you. I'm mainly rapping over my own beats because I haven't found a rapper I'd like to work with. Anyway, you guys think this is a good idea? http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/akan/acid-rap EDIT: Oh yeah, some harsher language be ahead.

The more things out there in FLAC format though, the more interest there is in the FLAC format. Besides, if someone cares enough about audio quality to download a lossless format then they probably already know about FLAC. Using FLAC is less effort for the end user. Besides, Trent Reznor released a FLAC version of The Slip on his website so I'm sure its popular enough for OCR to use it.

I think FLACs should still be considered as a torrent and as an alternative to .wav. Aside from that, VBR

So true. I expected a lot more exploration, but instead I got a surprisingly linear game. Here's hoping they make the sequel a bit more...sandbox-ey

congratulations to the both of you.

If you feel like having money for like, another month or two then my EP will probably be done.

I know for a fact that Sonar can do it in a sheet music view. Cubase might be able to, and I also know that Pro Tools 8 will be able to do it.

My favorite is MAKING remixes to games you've never played before. Kinda puts a whole perspective on things when you don't know the original context.

Unimportant but I want to thank everyone who helped me out with this remix. It got accepted and it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the comments on this page. Thanks to you all.

I've minorly updated it. I've had a crapload of stuff going on this month though as I'm still in high school but I'm taking 4 APs and 2 college classes on top. In addition, this month has had a lot of senior trips and other various activities that beckon entire days. Excuses aside, its still alive; just moving slowly.

I live in Nashville and wholeheartedly agree. I've discovered so much great music through random people and local shows. One of the best cities musically for sure, the whole area just kind of breathes it.

I'm going to go ahead and say there really isn't a wide variety of music like OCR that isn't OCR. I mean, I'd check out newgrounds or something but most electronic producers take on a different mindset than the folks here at OCR and vice versa. Thats why there aren't an insane amount of remixes on here that are meant for clubs, this site just attracts a different style.

Tasmanian Pain Coaster by El-P is my hype song.

Hearing metal remixes is cool and stuff, but I REALLY want to hear an epic progressive rock mix, similar in vein to the Mars Volta. I would attempt to take the task on myself but I'm not good enough on drums, and I just now started learning how to play guitar/bass.

Board of Canada's "Music is Math" made me cry once, but it was more circumstance than anything. The last song I had a strong emotional response to was "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" by The Mars Volta. Granted, I wasn't completely sober but it was by far the coolest 8 minutes of music ever, especially the ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpqM0PzwAGs

I like your style, as I've seen some of your other stuff that you've posted and your percussive work is great, that said, I don't think you have a good style for OCR, or at least not at the moment. You rely too heavily on the source, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as I tend to do that myself, but the mixes here focus more on interpreting the source rather than spitting it back out again in a different style. Also, I feel like this was just a bad source choice. Dire Dire Docks was one of the more majestic areas in the game and doesn't really bode well for dubstep.