Flexstyle

So, uh, I hate to be the downer, but I'm not feeling this one. I mean, I am, it's well-produced and chill and neat and stuff, to be sure! It's just that it's essentially the same thing twice, with a little bit of percussive additions the second time around. The main beat stays the same for way too long, the pacing is too slow, there's not a lot of actual rearrangement going on. The percussion is thinner than the rest of the soundscape seems to call for, the hat is a bit too loud, and this means there's a whole lot of stuff adding up to make this one not sit quite right with me for posting on OCR. I'd be willing to forgive the pacing issues if the soundscape were to evolve more effectively, or if the percussion were to be made more interesting, or if there were to be a more obvious arrangement going on, but this thing as-is just plods without any real development. Too close to cover territory for me, and definitely needs to be given a bit more TLC to keep it interesting as it develops. NO (resub!)

This has been a busy week for me, both with work and social stuff, so I've only really had a couple afternoons to sit down and think about this track. I'll be submitting later tonight, and it's not going to be a properly finished song, but it's at least got some cool concepts in there for me. Good to compete against you all!

Flexstyle Probe (Tunnel Rhino in Cyber Maze Core [X5]) Never Gonna Give (Up The Funk) (Gravity Beetle in Cyber Maze Core [X5]) Kuwanger's Pad (Boomer Kuwanger in Cyber Maze Core [X5]) Desert Catz

If you want to hear this experiment in playing one hour straight of continuous, beatmatched Final Fantasy tunes, then head over here: https://soundcloud.com/flexstyle/saboten-con-2015-final-fantasy-set-live-and-unedited Basically I used a lot of stuff by bLiNd, haha.

grmmphhmurble I'm supposed to go for my team this week but I'm uninspired and also exhausted from the past con weekend WELP GUESS YOU'RE ALL GETTING SOMETHING SUPER WEIRD FROM ME INSTEAD OF MUSIC!

I've never seen the TV series, and I've never played the game, which means I have no prior emotional connection with the source tune...so why am I in tears right now? Seriously, this is utterly gorgeous. I had goosebumps the entire time as well. YOU: yeah, you, the one who's reading this right now. Stop what you're doing, put on your headphones, close your eyes, and take a five-minute break to soak in this stunning piece of music. You won't regret it. I could nitpick: some of the strings sound a touch unrealistic, and I may have heard a bit of distortion in the right ear at times. The entire thing is a bit heavy in the low mid. But none of that matters--if it didn't hit me about as hard as any piece of music I've heard in a long time, I'm gonna eat my shoes. YES

This is TODAY! See you there!

Flexstyle Requiem for a Reploid (Shield Sheldon in Sigma Palace [X8]) Leap of Faith (Vanishing Gungaroo in Sigma Palace [X8]) Palace Of The Beast (Slash Beast in Sigma Palace [X8]) Desert Catz

Hey guys--if you're in Phoenix, come on down and join us at this one! Hope to see you there on Sunday afternoon!

Since nobody's replied, I just want to say that this is super cool and thank you for sharing!

Unless my financial situation changes (or I get accepted as a DJ--we'll see, they won't be announcing that for a while), I'm unlikely to attend.

My track was meant to be a very "movie soundtrack" sort of song--hence a couple of "nothing going on" spots as well as the sudden transition. Those were completely deliberate. I had a mental picture of someone like Jason Bourne doing a covert ops thing and then being discovered and running away from international spy police or something. I make no apologies at all for the song, because it's exactly what I heard in my head.

Seriously. Don't forget, y'all, your vote is worth a first-place vote to your team if you're participating! We should see at least 39 votes per round, otherwise you're all missing out on points you COULD be having.

Listening through this one again and I can't believe how well it's aged. I still love it. So glad this was my first in-depth participation on an album on OCR, because I'm incredibly proud to have helped with it.

aww hellz yes, we need more Psy on OCR! Definitely got some cool squelchy synth stuff going on. I'm hearing enough source usage to be happy, the production is good enough...I could nitpick, but at this point, what's the use anyways? YES

+1 to all the above, plus I'd add this extra bit of feedback: I know you said you programmed your drums, and that's fine--most people here do that as well. However, I could tell that there was practically zero attempt to humanize those drums. You gotta give me something besides the kick, snare, hats, and cymbals always being at the same velocity, man! A real drummer doesn't hit everything exactly locked to the grid, and even the tightest drummers absolutely don't play every single drum the same way at the same loudness--it's the dynamics that can really make a piece. Gotta get me some love on dem drums. Keep all this good stuff in mind, and definitely visit the Workshop forums--you'll get a lot of really great feedback there as well. Good luck! NO

Flexstyle Mind Flip~ (Cyber Peacock in Final Weapon [X4]) Vector Point Engineering Sigma Fortress (Blizzard Buffalo in Final Weapon [X4]) Sword of the Scavalier (Ground Scaravich in Final Weapon [X4]) Desert Catz

Because kvetching about the judges in a community thread makes the process go faster

I might be around for an 8 PM EDT sort of thing.

Let's see.... - SFRG competition - a game soundtrack (Fantasy Strike) - some producer work for a Universal Music subgroup - finishing my Smash Bros remix album commissioned by Smashbits - finally getting Super Cartography Bros released here at OCR - noodling around on whatever I want - producing a worship album for my church - getting my next album together and that's just upcoming/current on the music side of things. Aside from that, I just got back from Asia, have done and will be still doing some panels and DJ sets at various cons, and am trying to keep making enough money to be able to afford things like rent and phone and electricity. As a freelancer, things are a bit up-and-down. So yeah. Busy-ish, wish I made more money, but I'm also not going hungry. Life's pretty good.

Wooo! Can't wait to do this one!

Guys, I can't believe how happy I am with this week's track. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I was this hyped to share something with OCR.

This week's track is likely going to be one I submit to the site. Super happy with where it's at right now. Just gonna let Jordan master it and then I'll be shooting it over to Shariq.

Getting serious early-stages BT vibes from this one. Production is great, soundset is great, and I'd use this in a DJ set in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing that it makes any substantial arrangement changes from the original. It's practically the same structure, there's no variation on the melody, and even the sounds chosen are all very similar. I'd love to see this get a little more interesting with how you interpret the original song, rather than just giving it a facelift for 2014/2015. Do some riffing on the melodic themes that happen throughout, and I'm on board. I'm probably one of the very biggest EDM advocates here on the site, so please don't take this as a knock against anything you've done--I just think that for it to fit with the site's arrangement requirements, you'll need to do some more work. NO (please resub!)

This has basically got the sound of OCR circa 2006, but I think it works well enough here as well. The boxes are checked: production is passable, source is definitely used effectively throughout, can't really nitpick too much. I think it's a bit odd-sounding if taken as a traditional EDM song, but that's not really the point here. Not getting any opposition from me! YES