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@zircon That's your call obviously but if you've checked the markets, Zircoin has already tanked this morning after our announcement. I don't think it will recover.

OC ReMix Announces Bold New Crypto/RFT Direction April 1, 2022 Contact: press@ocremix.org FAIRFAX, VA - OverClocked ReMix today announced the immediate availability of all featured OC ReMixes as RFTs, or "Re-Fungible Tokens," in a bold move to embrace the latest technology, regardless of its apparent benefit to artists and listeners. "There's been a lot of hostility towards and criticism of NFTs, especially from the creative community," writes David "djpretzel" Lloyd, President and Founder of OverClocked ReMix. "I'm an artist myself, and I think I know what the problem is - you can't funge NFTs. I've tried, but it's right there in the name, and I think that what most artists and listeners alike are looking for are tokens they can not only funge once, but repeatedly." Lloyd maintains that many of the perceived weaknesses of NFTs are mitigated by addressing this limitation - "Once you can funge over and over, and you've got that critical refungibility angle down, that's when the dynamic synergies and the Web 3.0 start to shine," he enthused. Environmental concerns about whether all this funging might expedite climate change and hurtle humanity ever faster towards living on an uninhabitable heat-sphere of death are unfounded, Lloyd says, because "this is all probably a simulation, anyways... and Web 4.0 will fix it." OverClocked ReMix will start accepting cryptocurrency immediately, to facilitate this shift to an RFT-based marketplace of digital web 3.0 content assets. Instructions are available on all mix pages. Ethereum, Bitcoin, and NiceWorkCoin will all be accepted from the start, with additional cryptocurrencies to follow. There are no plans to support Zircoin, now or in the future.

@duskvstweak Basically agreed on all points. I could be additionally unkind (to myself) and say that most of the site feels a bit outdated, too, but the homepage is a good place to start. Step 1 is updating our site navigation to be responsive, which I've sat on for far too long. Hoping 2022 is the year.

@RANDOMDUDE222 We actually built it ourselves, using Unity, so there's nothing *exactly* like it out there. Just as an aside, since someone else asked, we can't open-source it since it uses a bunch of third-party assets, and it's also very specifically tailored to our own needs. That being said: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1026380/Overture_Music_Visualization/ https://www.image-line.com/fl-studio-learning/fl-studio-online-manual/html/plugins/ZGameEditor Visualizer.htm Those are a couple other options, and if anyone else knows some good alternatives, please share!

I'm personally bummed animeremix didn't catch on, but I did have a lot of fun on the three mixes I did there... that being said, we've got a laser focus on VGM at OCR, to such an extent that we're pedantic enough to not allow the Wii menu music since it's *technically* not a game, but part of the operating system

Production is phat AND fat, with some buttery-smooth synth brass & bass, and generally I think this instrumentation is rock solid & absolutely suits the source. The arrangement is equally intuitive, and perhaps TOO intuitive - this is definitely a relatively conservative arrangement that leans on production enhancements more than gobs of original writing or harmonic alterations. What's here & additive is good, but there are also extended swaths that run parallel to the original, more or less. I would have liked to have seen a bit more addition and alteration in the arrangement department, but I concur with the above that it meets our standards in this regard, and from a pure joy/funk/production perspective, this is ace. YES

@Damashii!! I'll talk to Brandon and see how things are going on his end; very real possibility that Thanksgiving time frame will work, and would be awesome to include your work. We sent some emails your way, trying to make sure everything's okay. Let us know what's up, and also I have a spare PSU I can send you, if it helps.

@Lashmush I do sorta feel like you glossed over my response and simply repeated your many misgivings about the overall process; your second post here reads very similar to your first. We do seem to have a fundamental difference of opinion - and yes, it's opinion, not fact - regarding what's off limits or counterproductive when it comes to criticism, specifically of music. When a judge points out that a piano part "doesn't sound playable" and it's intended as criticism, you can infer that not only does it not sound like someone could play the part - which I agree isn't really an issue by itself - but that it sounds unplayable in a way that is displeasing to the judge, doesn't sit well with the rest of the arrangement, etc. Your definition of criticism would eliminate some of the best, most specific feedback I've seen the panel provide, over the years, which in countless cases was implemented and resulted in a better mix - with the judges AND the artist agreeing about the improvement. It does happen, and frequently enough to reinforce to me that such efforts are not in vain, as you imply. You mention some fringe cases, where a musical work defies orthodoxy in one way or another and would presumably run afoul of our standards, but... we've passed a ton of material that is experimental, unorthodox, or otherwise "challenging" over the years. In the case of your arrangement, the piece wasn't really out of left field - it has familiar aspects of structure/genre and doesn't strike me as a particularly unusual VGM arrangement. As I've mentioned, I liked it. And I agree, with several judges, that the bass is poorly mixed. Your response is that you meant to do it that way, you love the piece as-is, and you question our ability to isolate any single element as being problematic; I profoundly disagree with this thinking, because it would mean that judges could NEVER hone in on muddy mixing, weak drums, abrasive high frequencies on a guitar part, an out-of-tune trumpet, etc. - all of that COULD simply be how the artist wanted it, and who are we to judge? Except, that's just it. It's a judges panel. A panel of judges. That judge. Always has been. And inherent in having any sort of evaluative mechanism of subjective/creative material - whether it's a panel of judges, or a "Quality Control" team, or whatever - is going to be an analysis of what's presented, how it works, and what is or is not preventing it from being featured on one small corner of a very large Internet.

@begoma I've been in contact with Brandon and we hope to put things behind us, make this the best album possible, and release something both OCR & he will be proud of - given that it's the third leg of a trilogy he started, I thought we should at least try to make this happen, and @Rexy has been helping make that possible. Right now mithius is working on some epic material that I know will elevate the final result - I still hope to release this year, and we'll be discussing timeline soon. So, short version: Not dead, trying to work with Brandon to make something happen, stay tuned.

We don't, or at least we try not to, but perhaps I'm confused about precisely what you mean... we may not be the "arbiters" of someone's creative direction, but we're each the owners of our own opinion/experience, which we can bring to bear when evaluating a track. If you're trying to say that only the original artist can evaluate whether a specific instrumentation or mixing/mastering choice makes sense, you seem to be taking issue with the idea of... evaluating ANY music, ever, unless... you yourself made it? Our judges make every effort to listen on higher-end phones, but to be frank... the issue with muddy, somewhat overblown bass on your OTHERWISE AWESOME recent submission would have been noticeable on $10 airplane earbuds or the DT-880 PROs that I just listened on. I do not believe each of our judges need to list their headphones - when one of them hears something the others don't, that's when they need to get together and figure things out and potentially listen on different phones/speakers to figure out what's going on. In this case that wasn't necessary - we could all hear how awesome your mix was... and we could all hear that the bass was muddy and not sitting right. This is necessarily going to be different for each judge. The nature of having a panel of different musicians/listeners with different, diverse backgrounds is that, for any given mix, some of them are out of their "preferred" genres or comfort zone, but the goal is to evaluate on some common principles. One of those principles is clarity - are parts discernible, or is there a situation where one instrument's frequency spectrum is cluttering the soundfield? That's a *fairly* genre-agnostic issue that will negatively affect dubstep, classical, jazz, and cha-cha alike, and that's exactly the type of issue we're dealing with in this case... Yes. We all loved your track, for the tenth time It would have passed easily without the prominent issue with muddy low-end, and will pass easily once this is addressed. I don't know who wanted to hear what, but everyone enjoyed the mix... and everyone hears the issue. Your question is a bad faith attack on the judges panel, essentially accusing them of being biased against metal... and I mean.... we've posted a LOT of metal. And I damn sure hope we can post this particular metal mix, as well. Sometimes panel feedback can be less than ideal because it's contradictory - different judges might hear different issues, or prioritize different concerns. That's one of the worst outcomes from the evaluation process, because it doesn't yield the most actionable feedback. In this case... nah, that wasn't the situation. Everyone digs the mix, everyone hears the issue with the bass. Thanks, legit appreciated. I assure you, though, we do get tired One of the things that's most tiring is bad faith accusations when someone doesn't take our feedback well on a specific mix, and turns that into a giant referendum on our overall process/staff. It doesn't happen THAT often, but it does happen. If you've listened to the mix in question on a variety of hardware and you don't hear an issue, we're kind of at an impasse - perhaps you could get a second, third, fourth opinion from others that you trust, and see if any of them notice the same issue? The bass is literally the only thing any of us took serious issue with, and all of us noticed it. Either we're all wrong, or bad, or listening on crap headphones, etc., or... perhaps there's ***something*** to our observation? At any rate, once more for good measure: we all loved the mix, we all heard the bass issue. I don't believe this observation reflects poorly on the judges panel - if anything, it's an instance where there's unanimous agreement about a single, actionable issue... which is actually a pretty good outcome, if music's going to be evaluated at all...

Yeah the lead, when it comes in (interesting sound, I must say), ends up repeating itself almost verbatim, and then we start fading out before the two minute marker. A second lead could help extend things, or a solo, with maybe a hi-hat groove or something, to differentiate... and then I would actually consider a duet of sorts and having the original intervals somewhere in there, alongside your modified version. As-is, this is more of a "good start" than a finished arrangement - some good things happening, but not enough variety/substance yet, as both @Emunator & @prophetik music have pointed out. NO

First off, definitely a YES for me and a fun, uplifting, power-melody power-medley, with strong production and crunchy guitar harmonies aplenty. I think @prophetik music's right about the drums being a little loud, but they also ended up feeling a little samey to me around the four-minute marker - not the programming, the sounds. When that snare is hitting at the same velocity, with the same impact, over & over, it ends up having more of an EDM vibe, but in this context & with these melodically distinct sections, it did start bugging me. I guess the other thing would just be: OMG melodic overload You know me, I love me the melody part, but... this is almost non-stop melodic content, for 5+ minutes. Even my copious appetite for melodic riffage was feeling a little stuffed/sated towards the end - would have benefited from a sparse oasis or hell, a few more bars of progression MINUS melody. I don't find myself advising "filler" often - it's usually the opposite, actually - but in this case I would have varied the level of emphasis on lead melody a bit more. Not a huge deal, but worth mentioning. YES

Quirky AF and I'm loving it; absolutely dig being surprised like this, a wonderfully creative & still very recognizable take on the source that relishes exploring interesting instrumentation combinations. Muted trumpets flutter by, a wide slide guitar lazily recounts the melody, bass walks around a bit, pads swell in & out like an inflating/collapsing lung, and.... well the whole thing feels like an organism, exhaling & inhaling with its own confident, off-kilter swagger. Almost Cowboy Bebop-esque - not in any similarity to Kanno's score, but to that show's irreverent wild west futurism. We haven't posted anything from Geoff since 2005, and now I'm scratching my head on that.... either way, I enjoyed this rather a lot, and believe it succeeds in a worthwhile & utterly unique concept. YES

OH HELLO THERE. Not really an intro, per se, just kinda... throws you right into the action. When I was a kid we used to wake up in the summer at 6:30AM and jump into a freezing cold local pool at 7:00AM for swim practice, and this kinda feels like that, right at the beginning - no ceremony, no build, just trial by fire. Would I have preferred *something* more... introductory? Perhaps, but by the time the mix was over, it wasn't a big deal Great transitions & sense of unity, and great use of both guits AND rock organ (yeah!!) to help make that happen. Exciting, inviting, and never overstays its welcome, while also serving up a heapin' helpin' of Celeste rock/metal. Cool. YES

I think @prophetik music covered the highlights - playful, syncopated, & textured take on a trap/lofi rendition of this theme. Melodically conservative, but there's enough personalization. It's a bummer, though - this melody could have been stretched out, spliced between multiple leads w/ tradeoffs, doubled-up with some harmony, etc. - SO MANY WAYS that would have worked SO nicely with this genre/treatment. Instead, the second go-round we DO get some additional layering of string-esque patch to differentiate, but I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities to do more with the melody, both compositionally & from a production perspective. Also could have extended duration with a really minimal/sparse breakdown/buildup, something Tune In With Chewie has a few great examples of. Nevertheless, we're judging what's here, not what could have been, and I think this is substantive enough & applies its hybrid genre influence adeptly enough to earn my vote. YES

Both @prophetik music & @Emunator have a ton of great feedback and I agree with most if not all of it. There are some neat instrumentation/production choices in the second half, but a clear melodic line never materializes, and in a sense it's tied too closely to the source - deviation would be necessary to give the piece more direction as a standalone arrangement, as opposed to something explicitly designed for looping while playing the game. Without a melodic identity, this ends up feeling like a chord progression in search of a lead. The intro orchestral is okay, but a little robotic - the subsequent funk is a lot more fun/colorful, but in both cases there's no central melodic voice, so it's two different progressions, in two different genres, back-to-back. I would advise trimming the intro and fleshing out the second, funkier, more engaging portion, and either utilizing a secondary source or getting creative with this source to provide a melodic voice that is, at the moment, somewhat absent. NO

Right out of the gate, really like the FX application on the intro synth; some combination of flanging/phasing/delay/widening/etc, and it sounds great... Like some of our judges, I'm not a huge fan of the hardstyle sound/genre, but I dig this more than a lot of what I've heard, AND I think it makes sense for the source... No huge missteps on production or major glaring issues, but what I'm missing is a sense of focus/direction & development - it kinda feels like patterns with similar instrumentation, placed next to one another, as opposed to something that flows along, as a continuity/stream. For example, the relatively basic bassline doesn't modulate or throw in any curveballs, but it also doesn't even transition from section to section with any sort of a bridge/lead-in - it just starts a new pattern, right on the beat. The bass part in general needs *something* - a few surprises, and/or alternate FX application at select points, or even a different patch. As-is, the bass feels underdeveloped - not exactly the kiss of death, but more noticeable & more of a problem in a sparser setting + with this genre. Everything else is solid, it just needs to be glued together with transitions/variations that give the listener points of reference & foreshadowing, as opposed to discrete patterns executed in sequence. NO (would love to a see a resubmit, Scott's style has always been unique and plenty to like here)

This opened & ended solid for me - I especially like the combo of psamathes' vox + electric guitar on the last bits. I hate to "help out" with voting by contributing to gridlock, but (while I can hear some room for improvement) I felt that this was enjoyable and production was solid enough, for me; I basically concur with @Emunator, thus we have a third: YES

I'd like to see Rebecca experience with adding some swing/groove to her sequencing, as this could have benefited from a smidge. Rebecca submits a ton of fantastic work, but it's still important that we evaluate each mix in isolation. If this were from another/new artist, I think the vote may have been less critical, but who can say... at any rate, yes it's conservative, and the samples are a mixed bag, AND I think more humanization would have improved the overall piece while also distinguishing it more from the original.... but even after all that, feels solidly above the bar, to me. YES

Because the tempo, structure, and imo genre of the source are all so close, I tend to agree with the judges who don't think the solo & instrumentation tweaks are enough. A couple other things... that organ solo is the type of thing I'd write... but I don't *necessarily* mean that as praise... OR as a criticism. I would expect to get criticized by more professional organ players, of course... leans on ending slides a bit, perhaps? The delay on the bassline is odd; I think it should be EQ'd or otherwise processed to differentiate more with the original signal, because it almost sounds like a sequenced delay as opposed to DSP. There was enough reggae in the original that this isn't really a genre transformation, and the other changes aren't enough to differentiate it... plus some of the above production critiques ring true, to me. Certainly not bad, and you know I love reggae and would love to post more, but for me it's a... NO

As @Liontamer writes, transition at end was a bit abrupt, and then the very ending cuts off - fixable with a fade, most likely. Admittedly, it probably helps with this one if you have a profound love of Dragon Ball, or just... deep male voices talking about power. Otherwise, the generous helpings of voiceover quotes are going to seem a little odd. I could have seen the bass going a bit lower - I think it would have survived a full octave dip for one or more sections. The pulled-back section is less iconically psytrance, but does offer a respite/variety in a genre that can sometimes get overwhelming. Some neat psychedelic panning effects and decent attention to modulation over time checks some of the core genre boxes, and overall it was, in a word, fun. I wasn't 100% sold, but I was sold enough to have a good time. YES (borderline)

Very Hans Zimmer / Gladiator, which of course ain't easy to pull off from a production perspective. @Emunator wrote quite a bit, and I don't think he was way off the mark with any one point, but different things bother me. In a nutshell, the single biggest thing to me is the accelerando - I think it goes too far, too fast. It's a familiar cinematic motif, starting ambient & then picking up momentum for the more epic vibe, but I think it needs to be executed over a smaller BPM range and/or a longer period of time. This starts a seemingly linear tempo increase, and perhaps a curve may have worked better, but I also think it lands just a hair too fast, as well. The thing about this particular cinematic trick is that when it works, it's pretty cool.... but when the tempo curve, length, or range isn't quite right, it can really disrupt the vibe. So for me, that's the single biggest issue: sub-optimal accelerando. The background vox are gorgeous and lush but yeah, a consonant or vowel shift in some of the solo melodic lines would have masked some of the artificiality at points - Lisa Gerrard temporarily morphs into T-Pain for a fleeting moment. But this is more of a nitpick, and the drums, while admittedly a little thin, didn't bother me much. The bigger deal is the accelerando, because it's a key shift in the structure of the arrangement - a pivotal transition that bridges the reflective with the epic - and it's not quite there, and I think even a casual listener would notice. But would they be truly distracted? If this could be revised accordingly, it could really live up to its potential and deliver a stirring, cinematic experience. If revisions aren't possible, that's a bummer, but in the end it would still get a yes from me for the many things it's doing right... and I would just grit my teeth through the accelerando. YES (BORDERLINE)