Kizyr

Man, crazy stuff always goes on when I take a hiatus from posting. Congratulations! It can't be said enough. I mean, sure, it might not be a big surprise that eventually the two of you'd get engaged, but it's still a great cause for joy. Since I'm posting like the 200th congrats in this thread, I'll be sure to congratulate y'all in person at MagFest in a couple weeks. Man, this has been a good year for OCR! KF

Ah, another remix of my favorite song from the Sonic series. Overall, really good. There's room for improvement to bring it up to the next level, but it's still all there. I think the arrangement is interesting and original (despite the particular genre and style being really common), and the bits where you sort of pull back (like at 0:40, 1:45, 2:35, etc.) I like. My first thought hearing this: is there any way you can ease in the percussion? At the beginning, it's sounding pretty cluttered. It feels like you have to run to catch up to the beat/melody at the start. That's sort of a persistent problem throughout; there's just a lot going on all at once, leaving it occasionally sounding a bit cluttered or rushed, as if the percussion, synth, etc., are competing over one another. I think the arrangement is still really good, and I don't want to understate that. So the solution to that might be pulling back or softening some of the instruments, and put the main focus on one or two elements at a time. I'd still really like to see this go through and get submitted. KF

Great! That's what I was hoping to hear. And yeah, it does make sense that not many people are going to be there right after New Years besides MAGFesters. (Is there an agreed-upon term for MAGFest attendees?) I'll keep an eye out for you folks! I haven't really had any luck convincing any of my friends in the area to go, considering the time of year, so I'll probably not know many people there ahead of time outside of a few OCRers. Given the comments, though, I don't think there'll be any shortage of things to do or folks to meet. KF

As I understand it, the MAG-rate only applies to people who are rooming at the hotel, not to guests. Since I'll be driving in each day, I don't think I'll get the MAG-rate. In any case, I'm not concerned about the cost of parking, only the availability. I've had problems with cons before (notably Katsucon) where parking was entirely impossible anywhere within walking distance--but that was metro-accessible, while MAGfest isn't. So, yeah, does anyone know about how liable the Hilton garage is to fill up during this? Did this happen at M6 or before? KF

Plus the several hours more of editing! I miss those days too, and I wasn't even around then. ...kind of sucks, too, considering that there were 2 or 3 meetups during then that occurred right on my campus while I was at college. KF

Normally, I listen to songs and just put my MP3 player on random shuffle. In part that's because most of the music I listen to is not on a specific album (like OCR or other independent collections). Though, much of it is because I don't find most albums have any logical order to them, outside of perhaps the opening and closing tracks. I will say, though, that I really appreciate it when an album does have some logical order to it. For the few songs that fall into that category, I'll often listen to them in the order they're on the album. This tends to happen mostly with independent artists--the ones that come to mind first are some OCR albums (particularly Chrono Symphonic, Dark Side of Phobos, and Project Chaos), The Megas' Get Equipped (their Annihilation of Monsteropolis was posted on OCR), Antigravity from Zircon, and Origins from Pixietricks. I would recommend sticking to the album format as much as possible. It would give you more control over the context within which someone would hear a song. It also lets you put interludes, openings, closings, etc., and might help to give you an entire finished project to be satisfied with, rather than just a disparate collection of songs. (Not to mention that you can "pull up" some songs that are weaker in your opinion.) This is just coming from the point-of-view of a listener, not a composer. But my thought is that you'll do better by aiming for an entire album. Even if it doesn't entirely hold together, then some of the individual songs can still stand out by themselves. Whereas if you abandon going for albums altogether, that's sort of an unrealized potential there. KF

I'm not sure if it's really possible, given how different the video game and film media are from one another. But it is something weird about video game-based movies where directors seem to feel free to go off in a totally different direction, whereas at least with comic book-based movies, there's always at least some touchpoints with similar characters and events. Maybe it seems like such an arduous task to have some similarity to the game's story while still making a coherent movie that directors just go "f*#@ it, we'll just rewrite everything from scratch"? KF

Sounds like good dungeon-crawling techno to me (I haven't played Ultima 6 though--but I was under the impression that this was one of the opening/creation screens). It's not terribly complex, but then again it doesn't need to be. The synth/bells are a good touch throughout, although they might make it a bit unworkable as background music in an in-game context. Overall, pretty good. Minimalist and simple, but good. KF

The waltz style or 3/4 (or 6/8?) timing was a good way to get through the eeriness of the track. ...come to think of it, all 3 of Trace's remixes have an eerie quality to them. Though that's not a bad thing by any means. I'm generally hesitant about sound effects. I think in most cases they detract rather than add (though there are notable exceptions). The extra dinosaur SFX are okay, but it seems like the only thing the remix really has going for it, and it's a pretty weak thing to stand on. KF

Pretty good ambient jazz track. Admittedly there's not a lot going on, and it starts to sound a bit meandering. But, it still works well as background. I'm sort of surprised the sonar ping works so well despite being repeated for almost the entire track. The rest of the melody kind of dances around that and the percussion, so it has a pretty cohesive feel to it. All in all, it's a fun track, even if it does feel a little aimless. KF

This was one of two songs that got me to download the entire set of OCR remixes. It's also what introduced me to Jill's voice. Back before I reset my MP3 player's settings, I think the #times played value for this song was somewhere in the 70s or 80s. The arrangement is brilliant; the switch in timing works really well with the lyrics to make this almost a new song, while still keeping the sense of desolation and loneliness brought to mind by the source. Sephfire and GrayLightning really outdid themselves on the arrangement, and pixie's vocals on top of all that takes this song from amazing to indescribable. I can't think of a single thing that I don't absolutely love about this song. KF

Does anyone know what the parking situation is at the hotel? I know that they offer $9/day (or $14/day event) guest parking, but does anyone know how liable it is to fill up? I'll be driving in each day, and after taking a look at the area, there's not much available there besides parking at the hotel (I didn't see any garages or anything else nearby 'sides the apartments across the street). KF

Cheetahmen II! - Can't beat it on account of the game being a glitch by design. Albert Odyssey - Brilliant soundtrack, mediocre (but silly) game. Tyrian - I actually like the game, since I've had a fondness for top-down shooters since Galaga. I always turn the SFX down and music way up for this one. There aren't many I can think of that I play specifically for the soundtrack; everything else that comes to mind is at least a great game with a killer soundtrack. KF

Only $25 extra to fly into DCA (Reagan National)? Yes. $25 extra to fly into IAD (Dulles)? Maybe. Assuming you mean Reagan National, then yes, it's definitely worth the extra $25. For that, you end up saving a 40-minute drive (which would cost more than $25) or 90-minute train/bus+metro ride (conservative estimate, probably longer). Reagan National is also right next to Alexandria, so it's a real quick trip up to where the convention is. Washington-Dulles (IAD) isn't that much of a difference in terms of distance. It's marginally easier to get to Alexandria from there, but not by much. KF

I wouldn't want you to take it the wrong way when I say it isn't my thing. I just mean that although I don't really like it, there isn't any specific reason why, and so I can't chalk it up to anything beyond simple taste. I'm not sure if it's the quirkiness or not that's the cause, since there are some weird songs on OCR that I still enjoy. However, I can see where some of the other comments re: quality (Rozovian, especially) come in. If those were cleared up, then I might be able to give this a more critical listen. Even if you or Hale don't aim to have this submitted eventually, I wouldn't mind seeing more work along this angle. I do have a bit of a bias towards vocal tracks. KF

It's an all-right ambient track, but nothing else is really pulling me in about it to be honest. It sounds like a lot of repeated sound effects, although admittedly with an okay structure behind it. I can see this as a short 15-second clip or an interlude, but not as a full song on its own. KF

Well, while it'd be nice to do that for the earlier stages, I do like how it's set up for random one-on-one song battles. It's the best way of preventing the competition from becoming just a popularity contest (I mean, even for some of the recent ones I judged, I might very well have ended up favoring other songs over the OCRers that brought me there in the first place; no telling). On that note, (general question here) what do you really do to get a song noticed before quarters? Especially in some of the more popular genres? KF

The Guild is what sealed it for me. I didn't even know she was in Dr. Horrible until I saw it (I only knew Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion were involved); seeing Felicia Day and NPH was just a really great bonus. KF

There's a simple solution there! Review every song where OA has the last review to bump him off the top (or bottom, depending on how your settings are arranged). ...of course, I'm not sure how many folks actually have the time to do that. KF

I'm still giving this a listen-through, but I do have to say while I really like the tracks in general, it sounds a bit odd having gotten so used to other remixes and the Blood on the Asphalt album itself. Just a quick example, Jose's tracks were some of my favorite, in part because the lyrics are perfect for the characters, so hearing the instrumental versions felt lacking. When I get more time to listen to this, I'll try to offer my thoughts while putting aside my bias towards BotA. Hah! That's brilliant; best forum present ever. KF

Am I the only one that kind of liked the Street Fighter movie with Raul Julia? ...ok, yeah, it's ridiculously cheesy, but still... It did prove that Raul Julia can make even the crappiest lines sound good. I didn't mind Ryu/Ken being relegated to side characters in that one. I was more upset by Dhalsim's treatment... The one Indian character from my youth who could kick ass gets turned from a superpowered fighter into a pacifist scientist. Back on track... I have no faith that this movie could turn out even remotely good (even the "so bad it's good" kind). The casting call just confirmed that. KF

I put this one on repeat for a few times... It's a really great ambient track (snow fields and the like tend to lend themselves to that sort of a theme, come to think of it). Some desolation, some calmness and serenity, is sort of what this mix sounds like it's going after. Really great. I can't think of any complaints for it. I mean, it sounds a bit "empty", but given the sense it's supposed to evoke, that should be intentional. KF

This is really something... The changeups in theme are done so well here. The song sort of carries you along, like you're climbing up a mountain for the first 1:50, just about there for the next 30 seconds, and at about 2:35 when the piano comes in, you've reached the summit. It's more typical to see so many changeups done haphazardly. But this sounds as if a lot of thought and deliberation went into the arrangement, which is why it works so well. KF

I got on a little roll with this last year and sort of tapered off. I'm definitely up for it again this year, and I'll try to stick to at least a review a day. I still get surprised at how many of my favorite mixes on this site I've neglected to leave a review for myself. KF

Just took it. Great questions. I'm wondering how you'll really be able to incorporate all those free-response ones, though--seems like a bit of a challenge. Good luck on your assignments! KF