Igami
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Hello OCRemix community!
Thank you to all who have contacted me with interest in composing for my project. I have come to an agreement with an OCRemixer who will be handling the entirity of this request. I hope that within a few more months the music will be completed and ready to share with the rest of the OCRemix community. Once again, thank you to all who have contacted me and those who have taken the time to read my request through and through.
My name is Alex Ku, and I am majoring in the Game track at The College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. Come next semester, I will be diving into my Senior year and producing a Senior Thesis. For a Game student, that entitles creating an independent game, or at least a demo of it. Considering all the elements of a respectable game, I found it necessary to find a means to include quality music to make this project as successful as possible, and when I think quality video game music, the first thing that comes to mind is OCRemix. I have been listening to OCRemix for over 10 years with ‘Kick My Axe’ by Jeremy Johnson, Midee, and prozax being my first exposure, and quite frankly am extremely excited to reach out to everyone here.
As such, here I stand (or sit, rather) with this request for the OCRemix community. I am in search of one or more remixer(s) who is willing to create original music for my game.
Please allow me to elaborate.
Request Workload
Before I jump into a pitch and synopsis of my game concept, I believe it is more practical to begin by establishing exactly what my request entitles.
For the game demo that I will be creating, I will need tracks that fit into the following niches:
1. Title Screen/Game Theme
2. Town Theme in two variations – Winds and Strings version of same melody
3. Action/Combat in two variations – Winds & Strings
4. Moment of high tension/Escape
With everything accounted for, this will be a grand total of 6 original tracks with each track panning out to roughly 2:30 to 3:30 in length. I would like the Town Theme to be a more environmental soundscape that the Action/Combat track would amplify to fit its niche. Tracks do not have to loop. I would need the final versions of these tracks by mid April 2015.
I am also willing and expecting to pay for these tracks.
Audio references will be provided further down this post, but for now this is what it boils down to.
The Concept
In order to get the imagination juices flowing, I would like to take a moment to briefly pitch an overview of my game concept. I am attempting to summarize as much as possible without hashing out crucial information, but please feel free to ask me to elaborate or just ask questions in general if anything is unclear.
Setting: Europe, 1800s-1900s
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Art Direction: Realism
The backbone of my concept comes from the desire to create a double story, double main character game set up as featured in titles like Threads of Fate and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. With that as my working space, I began searching for a concept that could hold a duality that would not only make both characters important, but connected. The solution I decided upon was the concept of time and the duality of past and future. As I did further research and communicated with my peers, I stumbled upon something known as psychometry, or otherwise known as object reading, that I could use as a takeoff point and key game mechanic. In a nutshell, psychometry is a psychic ability where the user is capable of interacting with an object of unknown origins but is still capable of depicting those origins without the need of extra research. The story of an object told from an object’s point of view, as I like to put it. With one character who is past psychometric and the other who is future psychometric, I invented a world where time is experienced and manipulated by exclusive human abilities rather than human technology and science.
The game begins in a child arc manner similar to that of Tales of Graces. The two main characters, Kite and Lily, both suffered their own critical family losses as children and encounter one another at an orphanage. Prior to encountering one another, Kite and Lily had never been in contact with another human who possessed any form of their ability. Kite, who is past psychometric, has always lived his life fluctuating between seeing visions of the past and experiencing the present. Lily, who is future psychometric, is victim of a similar situation in future context. As they were growing up with their parents, that was a normal perception of time for them. They had no awareness as well as no control over their gift. However, after interacting with one another at the orphanage, their instabilities with the past and future overlapped, and they experienced a true, continuous present for the first time. This contact opens their eyes to the fact that their experience of time is different from the rest of the orphans, and therefore the rest of the world, and their sense of chronology is lost. The childhood arc is spent establishing that Kite and Lily are the key players, that they have an immature ability that could use some improvement, and concluding with their separation and departure from the orphanage that leads them to take initiative over their own lives now that they cannot rely on one another for stability.
As Kite and Lily mature into adults, they become masters of the art of psychometry and reign complete control over the fundamentals of their ability. They can interact with objects to learn more about the past or future through what that object experiences and use that information to their advantage, whether that is for basic survival or primary story progression. Overtime, their abilities evolve even further, and they become obstructed by other individuals who possess similar abilities and use them to suppress Kite and Lily. Each party becomes obsessed with manipulating time in favor of improving or sustaining their own lives, which usually entitles destroying others.
As the game revolves around the cooperation between two main characters and a possessive, conscious control over the element of time, I have finalized the game title to stand as “Our Minute.”
Within the boundaries of a one year student project, this concept will be executed as a playable demo where the player controls either Kite or Lily as a child within the orphanage. They are able to visit the rooms of their fellow orphans, but instead of the doorways leading to actual rooms, the doors will lead to previews of primary game mechanics that will be experienced as an adult displayed from the intended game camera angle. As Kite and Lily finish their rounds, they will end up in the central lobby where an example of time stabilization will take place between the two, concluding the demo.
Themes and References
Assuming the above text digested well, I believe it would be helpful to communicate some big themes and ideas in order to zero in on the approach to music and mood.
Themes
-The more you learn, the less you know
-Exploration and patient but relentless pursuit
-Hopelessness masked by an unwavering dream
-There is no good or evil, just opposing interests
References – Games that sink in kind of the way I would like mine to
-Threads of Fate
-Legend of Mana
-Tales of series
-Final Fantasy
References – Audio reference for sound samples and style
The biggest influence that I would like to hear the music take from would be from an MMORPG known as CABAL Online. Please take a moment to listen to some map themes.
I don’t know enough about music to talk about what makes me like these tracks as much as I do, but something that sounds like it could fit in this world’s soundscape under the niches I designated above would be exactly what I’m looking for.
I also would like to push strongly for influence from Nier’s soundtrack, such as “The Temple of Drifting Sands” and “Gods Bound by Rules.”
I would like to see where things go from here before I continue to edit and refine this request. This previous semester was spent solidifying my idea and plan for execution, so unfortunately I do not yet have any assets or original visuals to include just yet. If you would like to contact me privately about this request, please direct e-mails to my college e-mail, aku@collegeforcreativestudies.edu
Thank you for taking the time to read this request. I look forward to the opportunity to work with an OCRemixer!
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It's Dale North.
D.N.
DOWNLOAD. NOW.
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I'd have to say that this remix is pretty freakin' sexy.
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1. Rosalina
2. Alucard
3. Pikachu
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This track has some wicked energy, and I absolutely love it.
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Words cannot describe the amount of awesome that this remix is made of.
Great job of taking a source that's been remixed like crazy and making it sound like I'm hearing it for the very first time.
Listen to it, download it, add some butter, then slap it on your portable and take it with you everywhere.
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This track just came up on my massive 3,500 song OCRemix only playlist for the first time, and now it's going to be on repeat for the next 16 hours while I grind out on a 3D modeling computer project.
I love tracks that not only sound nice, but feel nice too. This track sells both of those within the first 36 seconds and only gets better.
Props mv, this is probably my favorite track from your list.
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This is an absolutely sweet mix.
I hope to hear more from Rukunetsu in the near future.
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The next time OCRemix does a full update on their tracks and adds the next segment of torrents, the title of this remix needs to be edited.
I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed it out, but there are a couple mistakes with the romaji.
The translation I believe I'm supposed to be getting from the title is (something along the lines of) "10 years too early (so get on my level, sucka)."
In which case, the romaji, hiragana, and kanji should be written as such:
"Jyuunen Hayainda yo!" (spacing is subjective.)
じゅうねんはやいんだよ！
十年早いんだよ！
Ten, or "jyuu" is composed of hiragana "ji," small "yu," and "u," so the y can't be left out. Also, the "yo" at the end I believe is intended to be used for stating new information or information that one would not expect to be already known, in which case it would not include the long vowel with the extra "u."
Or perhaps everything I just said you already knew, and the spelling of the title was intentional.
Either way, it's a great mix.
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This is a pretty sweet mix.
Not sure if I'm a fan of the super fuzzy snare (I'm assuming it's a snare drum anyway) that appears during 0:33 - 0:54, but it cleans up quickly and doesn't return, even during the acoustic section starting at 3:18 where a similar sort of distant quality is used.
I like the contrast between the all-out recognizable source segments and the gentler fills (that sometimes use recognizable source as well).
Overall, I think it's a really strong mix that has a personality that can be further strengthened in future mixes.
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This remix definitely survives the test of time. It feels extremely cinematic and nothing shy of epic.
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Vocals kicked in and I was absolutely stunned.
Short remix? No problem! Now introducing 30% more repeat button - call now!
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2:26 - 3:34 sounds like Sonic kicked Link off his boat and covered every grid of the map within that time span.
I didn't get any sleep last night, but this remix just became my ear coffee.
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Just recently dug this up out of my OCRemix music folder and I just have to say, this remix is a masterful combination of sweet, sexy, and stylish.
The segment from 1:02 to 1:27 makes me melt every freakin' time. Can't get enough of it.
In my opinion, Diggi Dis' finest work right here from start to finish.
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Silence -> Piano @ 1:36 = soul melting.
This is a beautiful mix that really starts getting a personality after that brief silence at 1:36. Definitely could use some more loosening up and variations, but that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with where it's at now.
I was tapping and I'm still hitting that repeat button. Hope to see more mixes from Dasgust coming up!
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Sweet track right here.
This album's going straight on my torrenting list along with the updated OCR0001-2500 torrent.
No questions asked.
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This seems like a great track for burning in my new pair of headphones!
I'm usually not into the brain-blastingly heavy bass, but this track is too sweet to pass up.
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I'm not really sure if OCRemix is big on remixing MMORPG themes, but I thought I'd at least throw this one out there anyways.
I personally love the entire LaTale soundtrack, but I'm just going to vouch for one of my alltime favorites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvn7iWsVgW4
I'd really just love to hear this song rearranged with the same style, and lengthened to at least 2:30.
Thanks for reading~
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Thanks for the new perspectives, everyone.
To answer your question, Geoffrey Taucer, no. I learned a small chunk of set drumming from a friend for a few months, but I don't believe it was enough to really count.
As far as the knowledge side goes, completely zero.
And at this point, I don't think my budget for software and gear matter just yet. I believe prioritizing learning over bouncing into software and shiny equipment is the better decision for the next few years.
Combining Yoozer and avaris's posts, it seems like I should really get myself involved in some piano or guitar lessons around my area, or both, as well as picking up lots of books about music theory at the library, and whatever those might lead me into.
I'll also have to give that graph paper exercise many serious attempts as well.
My only question is in regards to this:
A good song will sound good when it's just played on guitar or piano;
Kind of a wierd question, but I guess I don't really understand what you mean by "song." I assume it means that every element/instrument of a song should sound good when played on a guitar or piano?
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What's your music background like? If you have a good understanding of composition and theory you're likely going to get a lot of good advice on the WIP forums.
As far as formal education in anything music-related, absolutely zero. I learned the drum set informally from a friend for a few months who's been doing it for years, and based on his analysis, I got pretty far pretty quick. No ego trip or anything. I know I'm still a newb.
I don't know how much this counts for, but I've listened to every single mix on OCRemix at least once, and some select few (about 900 of them) I listen to constantly and have compiled thousands of listens per track over the span of 5 to 6 years.
I, of course, also listen to many video game OSTs. Some that come to mind on the spot are Sonic Adventure 2, Super Mario Galaxy, and Legend of Mana.
I'm also very into Japanese music because of their overall complexity (in my opinion anyways) and simply because I love the Japanese language. My forum name, Igami, is Japanese, so to anyone here who already recognized it as Japanese (a vague, removed-from-context translation of Igami is "distortion"), this may not be a surprise.
I've been listening to different styles of Japanese music for 7 years.
I listen to music 18+ hours a day at a highly controlled volume level since I'm well aware of the nastiness of hearing loss.
Sometimes I mentally compose random beats or remixes of other songs, and I believe that they are acceptable as a "step 1." At the very least, I believe my senses have matured over the last 3 or 4 years of writing songs in my head.
I understand some basics about making music sound rich, like using pads to give a very simple example, but until I really sit down and apply what's bouncing around my head, I don't believe I'll really know anything.
In short, if I picked up anything about music composition and theory, it would have come from listening to all that music for all these years. Perhaps it's possible, perhaps it isn't. My head is just jam packed with ideas for just about any VGM, but I've never had a venue for getting them out of my head.
So here I am.
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Thanks for the Kontact <-> FL Studio 101.
I 100% plan on playing around with FL Studio defaults. I'll probably end up posting "for the lols" mixes all collectively in a thread just so I can hear what people have to say.
As for my second question, I wasn't really thinking about "maximizing" OCRemix acceptability rates.
I was more so thinking about, are there certain effects, particularly synths, or articulations(?) that may be much more difficult for a novice to pull off at all?
For example, the oscillations in the first 20 seconds of zircon's ReMix, "Desertion," is something that I get the impression takes being very familiar with your programs in order to pull off.
I stepped in with the notion that some songs may have more difficult technical features in comparison to others, and since being properly conservative to the source is a must here on OCR, I assumed that some songs are more complex than others even before considering a ReMixer's interpretation.
I guess this still all ties back to the amount of passion I have for a particular source regardless of technicality, but this is also a factor as well, right?
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Yes Kontakt and FL Studio is definitely a viable combination, it's what I use primarily (supplemented with a bunch of free stuff).
However, price is definitely something to consider; as Kontakt is really quite expensive. If you have the cash and you're serious about this, then go ahead I suppose. Kontakt will be easy enough for a beginner to use, but you may need a bit of help learning to set it up in FL for the first time. If you get to that point then just let me know and I'll walk you through it.
I'll most likely have to take you up on that offer when the time arrives, thanks. The biggest question that came to my mind in relevance to Kontakt and FL Studio was, if soundfonts (? correct me if I'm using these terms wrong) like Shreddage are exclusive to Kontakt, then how do you sequence with it if Kontakt isn't a DAW?
Of course, I understand a little better now that it's (Kontakt) is mostly just a library, and by some method I don't understand yet, it's possible to turn Shreddage (convenient example) into a plug-in that FL Studio can read, and go from there.
A few more questions,
I keep forgetting to mention this in my posts, but the kind of instrument selection I'm going for is in the spectrum of orchestral, piano, wind instruments, electronic? (an example that comes to mind is Protricity's ReMix, "Brainsick Metal." Something along those lines with my "style" instead), guitar (lead and rythm), bass, and obviously some form of drums.
Based on the above, would Kontakt be a "once and for all" purchase, even at the most professional level? I'll re-read Arcana's thread about Kontakt on top of asking this to hopefully get a very thorough view on this.
I realize that most of those are still pretty vague since I don't know the specifics, but hopefully I'll figure that out over time.
Second and last question for now, should I be careful with the song that I first choose to mix? Or should I not even start by mixing and instead start by composing random beats?
Financial things aren't TOO big of a problem for me. Purchasing a DAW of choice and a sound library (most likely Kontakt at this point, but obviously I have to do a lot more looking) sounds like a comfortable spending range ($600-700) for many years to come.
And to close, given that I really only have summer vacations free for me to actually dedicate a reasonable amount of attention to this commitment, the upcoming one being my first, I believe at this point that working with defaults and the free things provided on zircon's "best free music software" page will be as far as I would really be getting in a practical situation.
I do have a version of FL Studio 8 on my computer (from somewhere), so I believe that I'll proceed with this as an experiment. Since I don't know if this copy is pirated or legit, I'll end up buying a copy once and for all when I feel ready for it.
As implied by summer "vacation," I'm still just a college student, sophomore specifically, and I get the sense that most everyone on OCRemix is older than me.
As always, my thanks to everyone's input and advice.
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Workflow is the primary difference between the major DAW's (Digital Audio Workstations). Most of them can all do the same things, it's just different in how they do them. For this reason, it's hard to say that one is better than the others, so you'll just have to go ahead and try them out to see for yourself, most of the major ones have demos available to try. I myself started with FL Studio, but make sure you choose what works for you.
Just so you know, Kontakt isn't actually a DAW, it's a library of samples with a good sample player that you can use as a plugin inside a DAW, so you can't use just Kontakt alone.
I'm glad you brought that up. I was researching Kontakt since it seems to be relatively popular, and because I really enjoyed the samples from zircon and Sixto's* (Thanks for fix Rozovian, bad memory) recent Shreddage guitar samples that only work in Kontakt. But depsite all of that, I couldn't seem to find any sort of interface for any amount of sequencing.
I also realized that, for one reason or another, I have a fully functional version of FL Studio 8 on my PC. I toyed around with it a little and I kind of enjoy how everything works.
If I were to combine FL Studio with Kontakt, would that be a relatively devastating combination for both arrangement and sound quality? Are these two even compatible to begin with?
And as a more realistic question, is it even reasonable to jump straight into Kontakt, given how much of a novice I am?
I'm sure there are other sampling options that I don't know about. (Like the stuff in Kanthos's link).
Thanks again for everyone's input. Even if I'm not directly responding to everything, I am taking it all in.
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Thanks for the responses, Rozovian & Hy Bound.
The thread you provided was very helpful, probably because of the general mood that's going on in that thread.
I actually really feel like there's nothing more to ask at this point.
Everything that's bouncing around my mind are things like "which program should I dive into" and "what are the best tuts and sites to get me started," which are really all things I could just google or search on OCRemix.
I guess for a more broad approach, what are the differences between the major softwares out there? I guess I'll target FL Studio, Reason, and Kontakt. I'll be researching this one since it's pretty important.
Slightly more specific, is there such a thing as "the beginner's program," or does it just depend on which program I like better?
And a more technical question, is there a difference between using the PC or Mac versions of softwares besides keyboard shortcuts? Should I simply get the version for my stronger computer (Mac in this case)?
Thanks ahead of time for input.
[OC ReMix Collab] Student Game Project - Seven Stories Down
in Post Your Art!
Posted
Hello OCRemix community!
Almost exactly one year ago, I posted a thread in the recruit and collaborate section of the forums in hopes of working with an OCRemixer to produce music for my senior thesis game project. It wasn't very long until I was contacted by and had the honor of collaborating with XPRTNovice. If you're already familiar with his OCRemixes, go check out all the other awesome things he does!
While working on this project, a lot of things changed along the way, including the entire game concept itself. It was a very interesting year and regardless of the results, I'm excited to share what I managed to accomplish.
Game Summary
Seven Stories Down is a third person narrative game that draws on the concept of human relations and the ability to affect the outcome of someone’s life through one’s own actions. The player’s objective is to direct the type of relationship he/she holds with the main character, Sophia, in either a positive or negative direction.
Sophia is a single daughter of Jenny and Stephen Travers. At 14 years of age, Sophia loses her father and gains one more reason to ponder her own death. The player is in control of Sophia’s mother as the most influential person remaining in her life. Living comfortably in a roomy apartment, Sophia recalls the seven most meaningful chapters Jenny created in her life and uses those memories to weigh whether or not she will take a fall seven stories down.
Game Goal
The goal of this demo is for the player to uncover at least a slight impression of the relationship that the three characters in this game hold, such as their general professions, hobbies, and how much time they spend with one another.
Personally, the objective of this game is for me to exercise as many aspects of the game development pipeline as possible. I focused heavily on character sculpting and the overall game concept while breaking my hesitations with things like environment art, texturing, and understanding game engines.
Game Controls
Standard WASD Movement
Mouse to control camera
E – switch between 3rd person and 1st person close up views.
TAB – pause menu
You are welcome to download the most recent build of my game and give it a spin. Please allow for roughly 1.5 GB of space.
The build is made to run on Windows OS and to be honest the minimum requirements for running it properly are extremely high for its size. In hopes of addressing these issues, I also generated a brief video of my project in order to allow for a broader viewing audience.
http://vimeo.com/126747119
I hope you enjoy what you see and hear!