IsolinearMoogle

1. Ludwig von Koopa 2. Tanooki Mario 3. Q*bert

I absolutely love Hocus Pocus. Had an 8-level demo of it that I kept and played for years, until I found a CD of the game in the bargain bin at Babbage's. Great platformer.

I had a similar thought. I don't think it's a bargain, but it does seem like it'd be a reasonable rate to me, assuming the sponsor highly values the skills of the OCReMix community (which they probably do, since they are donating to this project). A lot would depend on how complex they'd want the music to be. That being said, I'd guess that a lot of indie developers don't have $5k to spend on their game's music, and that a lot of the bigger companies would rather hire an individual composer or composers, instead of hiring a "collective" like OCReMix. All purely speculative on my part, though. Regardless of whether or not it's a "good buy", I've no doubt that those two folks are gonna be supremely happy with the music for their game (or other project). Edited to add: Hopefully this does not spark a massive controversy over whether or not it's ethical for a not-for-profit org like OCReMix to "sell" their talents in this manner.

Yeah, I like the opening to that a lot better. Maybe something more specific than "foul things" — creatures, monsters, darkness, etc. I tend to think "things" is a good word to avoid.

Yeah, I check it every day to see if anybody is going to give at the $10k level although I will be shocked (in a good way) if they do.

Yeah I used to love it and in fact tried to recently emulate Windows 95 on my Mac just so I could play it. Was struggling with all kinds of sound driver issues when I realized that they have the whole game on YouTube since it was really nothing but hyperlinked video clips.

I have to say that this is a really interesting point, that there hasn't been a lot of PC ReMixing. I keep meaning to cut my teeth on my first mix on some sort of console RPG, but this thread makes me remember a lot of great games from way back when. I'd like to state my intention to do a mix of "SuvwI' van bom" from Star Trek: Klingon, a Win95 game. Raucous vocal piece, so I think I could actually pull it off with my current production skillset.

Glad I could help, post again with some o' them changes when you're ready. Happy mixing!

One fun trick for using alternate languages is making up fake Latin. Just did the orchestral Zelda concert... almost 100% made-up words for the choral parts. "Fithos lusec wecos vinosec" from FF8 also not a real thing. Experimenting with syllable textures ftw. At this point, though, you might as well stick with English as you've already crafted the words and want to use it for your dual purpose. I think the opening is fine both melodically and dynamically. I meant "strong" not as a synonym for "powerful" but more an antonym for "weak" — semantics, I know. You can effectively start your piece out quietly and with a single melody, I just feel like compared to the quality of some of your other lyrics here, "Hyrule is under siege" is not your best work and starts the piece off in a less-than-ideal place. I'm not a fan of unison choral bits, but there's objectively nothing wrong with them — although you really need precision in your choral blend to pull it off. Re: siege — I still feel like it's the wrong word, I feel like by the time of this song Ganon has already won. But it is hard to argue with all the thought you put into it in your last post. Even if it was inarguably the wrong word, it probably wouldn't bother 99% of your listeners, so go for it... your piece after all

Well, I didn't say "but the asking price was $50" but you're right, we're just talking in circles here. I may or may not contribute to a non-OCR album that uses similar fundraising tactics, but I will defend with my keyboard's very life that album's right to do so.

Foxx: I would disagree that the asking price of the album is $50. When I first saw the announcement, I thought they were so clear about the album being free on the site that it would hurt their donations. I can definitely see your reasoning since you don't get the "official" hard copy without donating the $50, but I think it really is open to some interpretation — I am probably going to download the files anyway and put my discs on a shelf until I die, so truthfully the hard copy album doesn't hold a great deal of value for me.

I'm going to second jnWake's comment earlier about not bringing the tempo down too much. I feel like the beginning of your piece draaaaaags right now. I get your point earlier about bringing the tempo down for some later bits in the piece... there is no reason the entire piece has to be the exact same bpm all the way through, in fact in my experience that would be atypical for a choral work, even one of this length. Still don't hear Song of Time in here... is it at about 3/4 through with the sentence that starts "Look for the one"? I hear a couple notes in common, but the rhythm and ending of the phrase is different enough that I don't think it really counts as a quote of that melody... maybe I am missing it somewhere in there? In general, if you are working on this for an OCR submission, I don't think you are quoting enough source material for it to pass, but I'm certainly no official judge, and maybe that's not your intent anyway. Are you planning to change "Hyrule" and "Ganon" around and make this a sacred piece? First thing that came to mind when I read that. Lyrically, I am trying to remember what my thoughts were, haha. I have listened to your piece enough times now that some stuff that was bothering me no longer does... I know my very first thought the first time I listened was (no offense) "Hyrule is under siege? That's corny." which is admittedly a pretty subjective assessment... but some clarification — 1) "Hyrule" is IMHO kind of an ugly word and doesn't flow well lyrically with other English words. Maybe use something more generic, like whatever you are saying there for the piece's dual purpose? "Our land", etc. 2) The phrase "under siege" connotes an ongoing action, but further lyrics and my understanding of the setting of this piece imply the action's all done — Ganon has already won, albeit temporarily. It's also hard for me to think of people singing this calmly about their home being under siege... your singers are relying on faith and playing the waiting game, but an actual siege should call for action. That might still be sort of subjective, but since you are opening with a unison of that sentence, you want it to be as strong as possible. Another suggestion I was thinking about making was to use a completely different language, but there are a couple bits here where I really like what you're doing lyrically (in English) and that would probably throw off your dual purpose. My two cents.

Cool mix. Toe-tapping. Has some complexity which I like. I like the "pingy" main instrument that carries the melody (that is about as specific as non-producer-me can be) — at the beginning. By about halfway through, I feel it's sort of overused and I wish a different sound would carry the lead. In the beginning, I don't feel the fade-in of the percussion works well. You already do a nice job of starting with the percussion, then adding the bass, and so on, I think a full-sound percussion beat at the beginning would be a fine opener. The fade-in sort of makes me feel like I missed something that was going on before that point. I like the drop-out and return around 0:43, maybe a little more volume on the one voice that remains? Around 1:53, where you are basically repeating material in the background, I feel like you are missing a great opportunity to put something in the foreground like a badass guitar solo or some such. The fade-out and return around 2:56, I don't think is as well implemented as the earlier one. The fade just takes way too long. Especially in context of the fade-in that starts the piece off, I very much feel like the piece is over at that point, and it takes long enough that I the listener am sort of mentally checked out by the time the music comes back in. The fade-out at the end, I have the same opinion as the one that starts it out. Not necessary. End your piece on a strong percussion beat. My two cents —*thanks for sharing!

Source usage — I recognize the ocarina tune at the beginning in the unison portion, and I hear the raised tone at the end of the Serenade of Water a couple times throughout, but largely I don't connect this piece with the source material. I really like the concept of this piece, and I think I like your arrangement overall, but it is a little hard to tell in parts due to the "rough draft" performance of this recording. A couple things you will want to think about if you only have a couple passes at making the recording happen: 1) Tuning — If your singers can't be very precise with their tuning, you will want to experiment with auto-tune settings and see if you can get one that doesn't detract from the piece. The tuning in this recording skews your harmonies, and really detracts from the unison bits. I would encourage a single voice to a unison portion anyway, since you're not working with a multitude of voices to add diversity. 2) Dynamics — This is a little easier to fix in post if you are doing individual tracks for each singer, but you as the arranger can help your singers out by making some very clear markings for dynamics. I think one reason your source material is a little hazy is because those parts aren't being emphasized in the recording. Make sure you encourage your singers to use the phrasing you want for this piece as well. 3) Choral blend — Have a good idea of what you want to get from this recording... do you want a straight tone or vibrato? Where do you want consonant sounds and cut-offs? Do you want high notes to be powerful and soaring, or ethereal and chant-like? I have some thoughts on your lyrics, but they weren't solicited, and you might be pretty attached to the lyrics at this point, so I'll keep them to myself, but let me know if you are interested. As I said, I do like this... it is inspiring me to do an a cappella vocal piece myself.

I have to assume that a lot of the criticisms about "fat profit" are not taking into account the history of the site. Pretty long con...