WillRock

Sadly to be expected for some people. It is youtube after all. Look it up on youtube. Maybe you'll find a version of the video that isn't blocked in your country.

For those who don't know, Allan Holdsworth is a jazz fusion guitarist who is known for his.. rather unique take on music. So, I'd like to get a mass of different opinions on this. Listen to the follow track: Now, is this song an example musical genius, with unique and awesome chord shapes/modes/scales OR is it an unlistenable incoherent and nonsensical mess that has no musical merit? Or is it a bit of both? Now... based on your viewpoint, I don't believe there is a right or wrong answer, but TRY not to get too heated in this topic if you disagree with someone plz? Play nice If you're interested in my personal opinion, I find it somewhat nonsensical, but I love the ideas present and I believe it warrants some study in order to help people create music with some originality and flair. What do you think?

I got slash beast. I GOT SLASH BEAST! FINALLY. YES. YES. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Inb4 "sorry couldn't do a track this week because i'm too busy"

Yeah this is a really god damn good compilation of chiptune goodness. 51 tracks is quite a daunting amount of music to get through but its worth it cause there are some real gems in this collection

...oops What happpens to poor GrapplingHook now?

Team: Rock Hard Mandrills 1: Slash Beast (X4) 2: Squid Adler (X5) 3: Izzy Glow (X5) 4: Duff McWhalen (X5) 5: Axle The Red (X5)

You disgustingly fabulous person. I would have collabed with you on this!

So this right here is one of the best remixes i've ever heard. Jordan, you are a fucking disgusting musician. Carry on.

I'll sign up as a star.

So OCR has a vast assortment of very different artists with many different styles and influences. So I'm wondering. What music influences and inspires you? If I wanted to listen to music similar to yours, where should I look? I'll go first - I consider my main influences to be Vince Dicola, Joe Satriani, Van Halen, Journey, Michael Jackson, Pendulum and Daft Punk. What are some artists that influence your own music?

I really dig that intro. Nice opening pad. That synth that comes in at 0:15 playing the arp... its rather plain, which is a bit of an issue with quite a few of the sounds in this track. The track also suffers from some mixing issues where sounds end up clashing due to too much delay on the all the instruments. It makes the track sound washed out. Arrangement feels a little conservative overall. I do dig what you've done here, but I agree with the other joojs, I'm afraid the mixing and sound design need a little bit more TLC, and the arrangement a little more personalisation to make the cut. NO (resub)

Ok, going to list some remixes I believe you should include... http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01841- this remix is huge, cinematic orchestral epicness. Seems to be a favourite of pretty much everyones. http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01266- I think it shows a testament to the strength of a remix when its got vocals, and not only do people like it, they consider it one of the greatest remixes ever made that arguably precedes the rep of OCR itself. http://dwellingofduels.net/dodarchive/08-12M7-Sidescroller_Month/01-Shnabubula-SMB,%20SMB3,%20SMW,%20MMX-Playing%20Super%20Mario%20World%20While%20Taking%20Mushrooms-DoD.mp3- Not from OCR, but as you can hear, shnabubula is simply an insane musical genius. It takes a truly superior mind to come up with something like this. http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01558- One of OCRs all time classic remixes, and for me, THE essential Zircon track out of his vast discography of remixes. I also second Harmony's Dragon Song - http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01404- One of OCRs best remixes, and well known to have been named a favourite by Hiroki Kikuta himself. http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02699- Finally, the Bohemian Rhapsody of video game remixes. Don't think I need to say much more here Not too many tracks there, but those are some of my suggestions.

This did used to be more of an issue but since the Apex albums, OCR has started to catch up on those unmixed fighting games. OCR Still requires more tekken tho!

Delve deep into the pretty boy pit that is glam metal and you'll eventually find the rather naff Shotgun Messiah, who's one saving grave is one HELL of a guitarist who's guitar playing is some rather insane melodic shred goodness. Check out the opening solo in this song (you can skip anything that isn't guitar shredding, cause those vocals are... yeah) And after that, you've got this instrumental: I also strongly consider looking into Europes guitarist Kee Marcello, who I consider more melodic and much cleaner in tone and playing than John Norum (who is their most well known guitarist, a shredding madman himself). The solo to the song superstitious is imo one of the greatest guitar solos ever recorded. Listen to it (2:38):

Might already be a thread about this but I have to ask. What is your stance on the loudness war? Sure, most of us out there don't mix our tracks to clipping/overcompression levels, but I bet most of us get the track sounding as good as possible - while being as loud as possible. There is a volume knob. Why not use that? Is it to fit in with other track volumes? It is just because its "common practice"? In some cases, are we slaves to what are considered good production practices? Does that cloud our judgement? What do you guys do?

Awww I WISH I had time for this

Making money is quite a big goal for me. The pressure to make money out of this does fuel how I'm doing things atm. Yeah this seems like a great idea. Something I probably should have done a long time ago. \m/ You're misunderstanding my point I'm glad you think I shouldn't need that validation but I don't believe I need it. I have the confidence in my own music to know its good because I think its good. Thats good enough for me. However, I'm well aware that not everyone will like my music. I'm not saying "no one likes my music therefore i'm sad". Its more along the lines of "The people who I can market my music to don't appreciate it as much as others would, others who I don't know how to do marketing towards." Its more of a marketing issue than a personal validation. I just wish I could get my music out to ears that appreciate it to its full potential. OCR and the surrounding community is very open - but you can't deny there is an understandable bias towards chiptune music. My own validation isn't enough atm because I don't feel I can waste my time doing music "just for me" right now. My personal situation doesn't allow me that kind of luxury.

Yeah I know, is it an issue to start with...? I dunno. Its an age old concept that has plagued musicians pretty much forever... and its always been interesting to observe the effects. However, when you start to feel the pressures of it, its a problem. A little background on my own situation and thoughts on the topic - I've been doing music for ages as you know and my music has always been somewhat unusual to classify - somewhere between 80s electronic rock chiptune whatever. That said, I do like experimenting with new things. I have plenty of people telling me they prefer my "electronic" sound to my "rock" sound, that my "chiptune" stuff is better, blahblahblah. Then I released "Welcome to the Real World" which was kinda a fusion of everything I do. People enjoyed it... and now, I feel like I have this pressure to just do another "Welcome to the Real World". Everything else I do doesn't feel good enough and peoples responses justify that. It doesn't help that I got the release on ubiktune and thats a pretty... specific label for genres that gives my music much more reach than just off my own back. My rock EP Monarchy was a bit of a flop by comparison, both in response and popularity. People would say "yeah its good but I prefer instrumentals/it lacks the creativity and sound of your other stuff" etc. Now... I hate to say it but I end up in a rather... weird frame of mind on it now. Fan appreciation is important to me and when people don't care for it, it serves to... put me off. And now I don't know what I want to do. Do I do "Welcome to the Real World 2? Can I even pull it off? Part of me feels that ship has sailed. However, due to my lack of knowledge of effective marketing and without a label backing me, as well as my current "fanbase" not appreciating other stuff i'd do in the same way... it makes me wonder what the point is of trying anything else. Doing another Welcome to the Real World is a logical choice... but then do I want to do that? Anyway, thats my story. Now, i've seen other people change their music. We all do it. How do you guys deal with the potential backlash when it happens? How do you market your non-game music thats not meant for the chiptune community specifically? Its a big topic when you delve into it and i'm curious to hear other peoples experiences

I think one of the main issues I see from newbs is too much of a good thing. That first time you use a phaser, you're going to think its the most awesome thing in the world - PUT PHASER ON EVERYTHING. And then for extra phaser, put it on the master. Because reasons. Yeah, i'd say the most common thing I notice is when people over saturate their mixes with cool effects.

My name is Will, I like rock music. What? Were you expecting something cool and unusual?

Dat bass! \m/

9-bit records has nothing to do with OverClocked Records - 9-bit records was started by halc when there wasn't an open chiptune label for OCR peeps that wasn't Ubiktune/Gamechops or the like. halc seems to have let it die recently tho, either because he's too busy with Zone Runners/life or OverClocked Records now fills the same role pretty successfully. On that note, should probably consider trying to get some of those releases on OverClocked Records