Gario

MOD REVIEW Man, when this thing gets going it really gets going - love that guitar work in there, when it gets to it. Of course, it takes a considerable amount to get there, considering the length of the track overall. The arrangement, in this sense, is borderline passable. Source is there, though - maybe a little bit too much so, in fact, but you do have some real fun with it later in the track, so I think the interpretation end will pass. Personally, I feel it's too short. It has a lot of energy, and really feels like it's going to push through to a new section that changes things up considerably, but then it just... ends. I have a feeling the extended intro is giving a sense of unbalance to the track, but rather than change the arrangement on the intro try giving it some more love at the end, perhaps giving it another section before letting it close off. Give it some thought. Considering how much of the track consists of the piano/synth combo, it's important that you nail it... and I don't think you do, quite yet. The piano sounds plodding in a lot of the texture, in the beginning (it gets better with the runs), and the synths that you use sound weak. It just sounds too thin and relies too much on having a heavy attack for effect. Lighten up on the attack on that synth, make it thicker (Layering? EQ?) and envelope a swell when it would be most effective. Every time these instruments come to the foreground these issues arise, so it's important that you address them. Production quality... well, I'm listening on hand-me-down earbuds from a school, right now, so I can't say much for sure. Sounds like it'll pass to me, in that regard, but it'd be nice if another mod confirmed this for me. Nice work, and awesome source. Not nearly enough Tyrian love on here, so I'm glad to see you fighting the good fight. Be sure to get those instruments fixed, for sure, and take a look at the end of the track before submitting, though.

You never played a pure run of D2? You'll find plenty of items you can use, then - that's the only way you can progress, in fact.

I actually would like to log on and play periodically, but Blizzard shut down my account. Kind of a dick move on their part, actually. One issue with the game that I could notice is that they have an easily reachable level cap without too much endgame content. D2 had a level cap that was all but impossible to reach (yet was something people could always strive for), and WoW had enough endgame content to make their level cap relatively meaningless. D2 also had the smart idea to NOT give the players the option to change how their character was built mid-game (In a much later patch there was the limited option for a stat change, but even then it was limited in it's use). D3 is fun, but I could see people dropping it off once they've done everything that there is to do. Still, the story content was good, and the game play was great. It's just not nearly as enduring.

Well, see, my suggestion is to mix it properly. Right now everything is on 'Loud' mode - you need to prioritize and raise/lower volumes based on what you think is important, in general. Otherwise all of your instruments are going to be fighting for attention, which is just hard for an audience to listen to. There's also the issue that the whole thing just sounds like it's clipping like insane crazy - that's just a volume issue that'll be partly corrected by your mixing. Look at your levels and make sure you're not cutting out too much, as it sounds like it all is, right now. If you're working with a limiter on the track, disable the limiter and work on the track until you don't see red anymore, then you can mess with the limiter to get a little extra volume out of it. I notice a lot of reverb on the instruments. Be careful with reverb - too much of it on any instrument and it'll be much more difficult to bring it into a mix without creating a lot of mud. If you really need all the reverb, at least put an EQ on it and ease up on the frequencies that would overlap on the instrument heavily. The ending is a little weak, but I could see it working, when everything is cleaned up. The arrangement is a little bit on the long side, but I think it works alright, actually. Some of the stuff in the later half may be too liberal for OCR, but I think you could find a way to keep it all connected if you weave more source into it. Otherwise, yeah, primarily is a mixing/mastering issue. I'm guessing you already know about most of it, but you wanted me to lay it out, so there ya go. Keep at it, man.

Hosay! Have a good birthday, man!

Shit, join in now - it's still going on with quite a few tracks left. irc.esper.net, #thasauce.

On a Sunday afternoon, eh? ... Sounds awesome. I'm in, for sure.

Zircon is right - there was more to this than the original print run; you can expect that things such as the FF7 printing would've been pretty significant. In the original kickstarter, though, it was mentioned that OCR would have received some of the donations, as this was intended to replace the 2012 Support OCR month, as well. So yeah, some of the spillover was, in fact, going back to the site.

Actually, you can assume that they haven't - remixes of their music is still up on the site. That wouldn't be the case otherwise. That's the only thing I've assumed, and there is no reason everyone else should assume otherwise, until further notice. Please chill out until further notice. Seeing that my posts are confusing people, though, I'll refrain from posting in here. Just... yeah, please try to keep your composure, everyone, it's not really good for anybody to say anything, myself included.

Looking at your post, you are blowing it out of proportion - if Square was trying to lock up OCR's Squaresoft music then they'd have put out a C&D order against the site, not the kickstarter. I wouldn't get yourself mixed up in the legal ramifications of being forced to pay a royalty for VG arrangements when there is no reason to believe that would ever be the case, as that just stirs confusion in this thread.

Yeah, just make the request and see what people do with it. An alternative that I've seen implemented is to win the PRC compo that's hosted on compo.thasauce.net (also linked in my sig) and request the fan game track to be arranged. On the one hand that almost guarantees a few remixes of the track. On the other hand, you have to win the compo first, lol. Nothing wrong with making the request here, though. It's a little less likely to get any response because people may have trouble submitting their work, but there's no harm in asking.

Dear God, have you had that photo saved on your comp, just in case this kind of thing popped up? That photo is really, really creepy.

Ooo, one of my favorite MMX sources. My first attempt at a remix on a proper DAW was with this track, in fact. Welp, you're right - it's certainly too loud. Everything is clipping like crazy on this thing. I'd suggest fixing that up to where you'd think is an acceptable level, so that people like myself can give you some helpful advice on production. As it stands, you say you know it's bad, so I can't say much to help until you get it to where you think it's "good". I like the arrangement and instrument choices on this, though - it's got a nice bounce to it. I suppose there isn't much to say on this yet except clean it up and finish the arrangement. From there I'll be able to give you some proper feedback.

That's really great stuff. Just the four of you guys, huh? I'd really like to see more of your stuff on here - you have some real talent creating a big band style with only four people. If you planned on submitting this track then PROTO·DOME is right in saying it's a bit too close to the source material, though the soloing in there does give it a nice little kick. It would be really awesome if you guys made something particularly for OCRemix - I think you'd nail it, if you wrote with the guidelines in mind. Hope to see more from you guys. Keep on rockin' out.

I'm sure you'll be an a-MAZE-ing parent! ... alright, that was bad, but I couldn't help it. Congratulations, and I hope you experience great things with your child!

On a completely different note, . That would immediately make it worth the time and money, making all counterarguments invalid because of the sheer awesomeness that would encompass it. Yeah, it's free... but it'd be so much better on a console that I'd throw 10$ or so at it, if it came out. Someone contact Remar and get him to do it.

He deleted them? Ack, I really enjoyed those - I hope someone downloaded them somewhere. At least I still have the album, but still - the performance was certainly half of the fun of those.

Too much wank tends to cause a premature eargasm. Hmm, y'know, listening to it again it doesn't seem to affect me as much. I'll give you the specifics, though. The 1:37 wank is a little bit on the directionless side, like it's just doing a bunch of circles or something. The synth that fades in at 3:40 seems to also be wanking just because it can. The other spots are not quite as bad, and I don't suggest removing the wank, necessarily. Just make them more like decorations of more interesting lines rather than decorations of really boring lines (where the only decoration available is doing busywork circles with the wank). Hopefully that helps you a bit.

Oh shit, That's the 200th? I think I need to make some time for this.

I was clarifying, for your sake. Sometimes people mean one thing and say another, since in normal human interaction they don't expect people to trip on details like that. There is no possible way that he could have meant anyone who hasn't heard of OUYA, as that makes no logical sense (unless one were to assume he's an imbecile - I don't, and I see no reason you should, either). EDIT: Crowbar Man is now Ninja Man. I see they have an extra 40$ campaign to give people a unique OUYA at launch. I can see that giving their systems a nice push in this last week, but I'll have to pass on it. Starting to feel the pinch on my pocket, and I'd rather spend that money on FF6 if/when that gets moving again.

Pretty sure he does read - kind of hard to use a forum if he refused to do so. Reading between the lines and looking at things past their literal implications are also things he can apparently do, too - seven quotes from well known indie developers can easily infer a lot of other unspoken support ("almost every indie developer that's heard of OUYA" might be a pretty accurate guess, in fact). Also, in the little coding experience that I have I could easily see the transfer to OUYA from other platforms (specifically the Android) being incredibly easy, since it runs on the same engine. Changing from one input style to another is not a big deal - it's just making a few changes to what input affects what variable. Since the touch screen is rarely used in such a way that a controller would not physically be capable of handling the same functions, I could see a lot of popular games being transferable.

Ah well, don't worry about it. I'll change that title for you, though. When you get word on your track's status you can always message one of the judges and send him/her a copy of the revised version - as long as the revision is objectively for the better and doesn't make any significant changes to the overall track they'd be happy to incorporate the changes before releasing the track (touching up the production on the vibes isn't a big change). They're pretty understanding people; as long as remixers don't make it a habit to do so I think they'll be alright with it. I think you're in the clear, regardless, so best of luck on the panel.

Correct, and they do so through their business model, not by arbitrarily shutting out large companies. A large company willing to release games on the OUYA is a victory on their side, not a compromise - if larger companies release more games following the OUYA business model then they've succeeded in their goal in a larger way than expected. My mention of 'make-or-break' was in reference to the fact that one of the big issues that people have had about the system - it's lack of showing games in production for the system. There are currently two that I can see presented for it now, and one of them is from a big player in the software industry. That really helps alleviate the problem that it had. It didn't need to be Square - the fact that it is Square is icing on the cake. Also, yeah, Neblix is right - 1GB of RAM with a processor that's 1.4-1.6 GHz is plenty, as long as it's on a dedicated platform (as opposed to a computer, which needs to simultaneously handle hundreds of background tasks that come with the operating system). That's why gaming systems can generally get away with being inferior to PC's in raw power and yet perform reasonably close.

MOD REVIEW Ooo, very moody. I like the style choice you've got, here. Source is there and nicely reinterpreted, so no conflict, there. That transition at 0:21... not sure if I'm comfortable with it, myself. It just comes out of the blue, and doesn't connect to the rest of the piece too well. I hear a few motions later that are similar, but are more subtle and soft - perhaps decreasing the intensity of it would help it meld better with the rest of the track. I hear the vibes at 0:22 crackling a little bit more than they should be. I know you're clipping them on purpose for effect, but overall it doesn't quite sound like it's purposeful. It's an odd suggestion, but I think it'd be beneficial to either make it clip more overall (Mmm, hard limiting), or clean up the clashing frequencies in the vibes so it's clean save for the louder, obviously purposeful clipping. Having the vibes sit somewhere in between ruins the effect when it's intentional, so either go all out or clean it up to maximize the effect when it's there. 2:33 was awesome. Excellent work with that transition. The arrangement is a little bit on the eclectic side, but it works alright. For future tracks you could play around with using older ideas from your own track to increase the cohesion - it'll make it easier for the listener to follow. Don't worry about it here, but it's something to think about for the future. Really, just that transition in the beginning and the vibes rub me the wrong way. You could probably send it in as is and get a pass on the panel, though. If you have time to spit shine it a little, those would be the two things to look at. Nice work - it sounds a little like Children of the Monkey Machine, which is a difficult style to pull off convincingly. The site needs more music like this, so I hope to see it on the front page sometime.

Have a happy bithrday, Rexy - it's a lot like a birthday, 'cept it's misspelled horribly.