Gario

LAN is still the primary way I play multiplayer games, actually. I'm not knocking DIII for not supporting it, but since the rest of my family cannot get good high speed internet that was (and still is, when I'm around) the primary way we plau with one another. The lag otherwise is pretty tough to deal with.

I don't think he'll mind if our votes are affected by personal taste. With enough people voting it'll all balance out - we're not from the judges panel, so I don't think he'll expect us to vote like we were.

Hmm, so you're sending out these remixes for everyone involved in the compo? Two thoughts on that. First, if you're randomizing the list for everyone, why not remove their own track from the list? That would remove the redundant high vote from everyone, at worst, and possibly remove a situation where a mixer might not feel perfect about their mix and feels guilt for voting a 5 for themselves (or in the worst case, votes less for the sake of honesty and hinders him/herself in the process). If you're sending a private package that we need to vote on anyway then tgere's no reason not to. Second, is the voting process going to be available to the public at all, or is it only among the participants? I feel that this competition would benefit from outside opinion as well as from the opinion of the participants, so if possible it'd be nice to see some randomized packages for people yo pick up, or alternatively allow them to PM you and request a package if they want to vote. You didn't mention the public opinion in your address there, so I might be drawing conclusions, but if you're thinking of keeping this private I'd recommend giving others a chance to participate. Those are my thoughts - I like the system you came up with, here.

There we go, got a submission in. No reason to think that it won't go through, so I'll just relax and wait for the music to get posted. *sweats bullets*

Seeing that most of those are from Sonic, how about looking at some of the music from the Sonic competition in the Competition forum? There are common tracks in there, sure, but a few brave souls took some obscure tracks and are remixing them, as well (I distinctly remember one member taking a stab at Metal Harbor, for example). My sig is a link to the compo, so go check it out.

Negotiate with the person in question. For most gigs you can either charge a fixed rate based on how many minutes you're writing (100+$ a minute of music would be fair as a amateur rate) or you can take a percentage of the profit (~10% isn't unreasonable). Personally, I would negotiate more, if possible, but those are somewhere for you to start.

Oh sweet, best album ever is coming back to life. Can't wait to hear what you got for us this time.

I have some idea about the up coming albums, actually, but I can't say that I know all of them, for sure. So far I know the Donkey Kong 3 album and Kirby album are pretty close to being finished completely, according to the project threads, and there's a few other albums on the way, too, so... perhaps five to six albums on the queue, as a guess. As for the order of release, it's really a matter of who shapes up the post-musical content the fastest and/or whomever has a special reason to be released at a particular date (the Wild Arms album, being the 15th anniversary of the game, being a good example of that). Other than that, I think OCR tries to have at least a 6-8 week period between releases so that every album will have at least a little time in the limelight before the next album pushes on, so if all of the albums need to get through before the FFIX album can do so, it'd probably be a 8-10 month process after it's submit into the system. I'm doing something that's close to an ass-pull for numbers, though, so don't worry too much - it'd likely be sooner than that, 'cause we all like Fishy. This isn't a finished album, though, and until those last few tracks come through this album won't even be in the system, so for the moment these guesses and estimations are moot.

For direct posts, I think the J's send you a letter of notification. For music that's sent through the panel you can always check the Judges Decisions forum, or this thread, in particular.

There ya go, a remix has been submit. Looks like Enigma and I both have last minute submissions - oh boy, I can't wait to see what we have in store for one another.

Less than inspired, but it's something. Hopefully I'll be submitting pretty soon, here.

I kind of like the raw sound of the drums you have, here, but for this track the open hat is mixed too far to the front. It drowns out the guitar work and the rest of the drums, even. The bass drum could use a little more punch to it, too - if this is live that's often achieved by sticking something like a towel in the bass drum (to absorb the reverb) and hitting it a bit harder. If it's not live then adding compression to it and making the ratio greater (something like 3:1 - 4:1) will help, too. The guitar tone is a bit of a mess. I can't distinguish the plucking very well, and the distortion makes it less 'heavy' and more 'muddy'. I'm no guitarist so I can't get into the specifics on your distortion, but I can tell you're not mixing two guitar tracks for the left and right channel. Play it twice and pan one to the far left and the other to the far right - that'll give it a nice, thick, heavy sound while leaving space for other instruments and avoid clipping. A guitarist commenting on this would be able to go into detail on this - I only know the technique, I've never applied it personally. At 2:49 there's a lot of heavy side chaining that's distracting. Lower the side chain on the bass drum and try using either the levels or some panning to removing clipping. Overall there is a lot of over compression in the track (it's most noticeable at 2:49). If you're using limiters on the master track or on all the individual tracks then I suggest removing them and working with the raw samples/recordings. Get the levels balanced and mixed nicely before using a limiter to boost the level to a comfortable level. The arrangement is pretty conservative. I don't know if you're shooting for OCR, but as according to their rules they don't take conservative covers. If you're not trying to be posted then it's no problem, but it's certainly something to keep in mind. I like the guy talking in the beginning. It's a nice change from what the source has. Hope that helps you out a little bit, there. I can hear this being a decent cover, but not yet. Keep at it, though.

Working on my track, I noticed that I called the file 'Launch Bass Zone'. I am now cursing that I don't have the time to invest in making my first dubstep track. Someone please make a track to take advantage of that name. Don't be a rotten pancake like me and pass up on that opportunity (like me). Thank you. *gets back to work on track*

Sure, the balance is a bit odd (lead is drown, the hats are a little overpowering, etc.), but I love that tone for the chugs - that's exactly the kind of metal I love listening to. Makes me do this without the brick wall. Which is awesome. If you're going to do metal, go all out and make it chuggy as fuck, that's what I say, and you succeed in this regard, hands down. Great work on this, man - I am now looking forward to more from you.

I dunno - on my listening of it I really enjoyed how he transitioned the 'Train' sound into the rhythmic hats. It was actually really cleverly done.

Nice work from everyone here, especially at the end. It really feels that, while this compo has gotten less and less attention as time passed on, people really did push hard in this competition, which means those of us who have been sticking with it through and through have been rewarded with some great music, in the end. I do hope that more people come in here and give GLL a nice pat on the back, though - his victory is well deserved. Dusk, too, should get some praise for really stepping up his game at the end, here, too. Nice work, great compo and I'm happy to have been listening the whole way through.

I know the version I'm using, don't worry. I just need the 'Go' sound, because it's awesome.

Yeah, Jason missed out. Also, does anyone know where to get the 'Go' sound effect from Sonic 3? I am in need of it, because it is awesome, but I am having a hard time finding it.

I haven't written anything either, yet, and I'm not planning on throwing in the towel. Give it a good shot over the next few days and see what happens.

Sounds like you have some decent samples used for this track. However, there's the issue of making them sound human - there's no variation in dynamics, at all. There's also the issue of balance, which the horns really bring to light, in particular, when it blasts at triple forte while everything else is mezzo piano, at best. Try to use your samples as if there really were an orchestra playing them - add swells, shape phrasing and vary the dynamics at least a little bit, there. Also, be sure to balance all of the instruments so that there's little issue with sudden bursts of unexpected sound. Some of the arrangement is pretty neat, but harmonically it's a bit on the boring side. I understand that those are the harmonies used in the game, and I think you can stick with them if you really want to (varying them would be wise, though), but you certainly need to fix the voice leading if you're going to make an orchestral track like this. People yell at me when I talk about counterpoint, but you really need to use good counterpoint if you want a nice sounding orchestra - parallel fifths and constant similar/parallel motion just doesn't sound good, especially in this context. I hope this helps you out, as I really enjoy the source you're trying to tackle here. Best of luck!

And now there is an official, certified Coop response to childbirth. Which is awesome. Congratulations on the birth of the child, Mazedude!

That is amazing.

All you people and your 'secret weapons'. You know that once you announce that you have a secret weapon it's no longer secret, right? Might as well be sayin' 'I HAS A WEAPON!'. It's much more intimidating that way.