MindWanderer

Normally I don't like voice clips in songs, especially this many. Usually they're really hard to make out, too. But this is genius, and well-balanced. I was grinning broadly when it got to "With the lemons." Really catchy, too; an unexpected but extremely welcome departure for Chimpz.

Got it! Selections are getting a little heavy on "faces" (heroes). Anyone still thinking about diving in, it's be nice if you took a look at the "heel" (villain) list first.

Done! Although Death's main theme is also from Lament of Innocence, and Death is one of the 4 characters I really want to get covered. If you'd prefer Leon, though, that's fine, it's an awesome piece of music that I'd be happy to have included. LoI is actually the only 3D game in the series I ever had, and never quite finished it. Absolutely!

CastleMania is new and in particular need of electric guitar work! We'd love to have you aboard!

I have an idea for something I'd really like to see tackled for a secondary theme song, but ideally it would be country western. I'm sure I can find a guitarist and arranger somewhere, but a singer with a nice Southern drawl is another thing. I can't recall hearing that anywhere on OCR before. Anyone know someone who could handle that?

So, I finally listened to these two songs. Sure, they're very similar, but they're extremely minimalist. Very basic kick-hat percussion with two alternating chords and simple spoken-verse lyrics. One could easily come up with something like this without having heard the original. I often hear songs that are highly reminiscent of other songs where there's no plagiarism going on, and that's with songs that have actual melodies. Just had one this week in CCoI where wildfire somehow managed to create a remix that "obviously" made use of a song she'd never heard before. So I'm strongly inclined to believe this is a coincidence.

"I Am a Real Wallachian," maybe? I like that idea! I can definitely hear it come together in my head, and I can certainly wait a couple of months if you'd like to take point on it. Or if you'd like to hit up one of your DoD collaborators to do so, that would be great too--that entry has kind of a weak lead, but if you put in vocals instead, it would be pretty darn solid. If your productions skills need help, the WIP forums here are a great place to get that tightened up. Alternatively (or additionally), your guitar skills are certainly up to snuff. Perhaps you want to collab with Yami? It'd still benefit from a vocalist, but I'll bet Yami can handle the arrangement and production if you provide the shreds. Yeah, the vast majority are rock or metal. A decent number are ethnic, orchestral, big brass, or minimalist rap, usually when the wrestler has a very strong theme that ties in to that style of music. Mostly heels. However, there are some that are substantially synth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KpMXRv4iUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCBux0nO5ss (this is actually mostly vocals, but they're so heavily autotuned that just about anyone can sing like that) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjpRDmXoyMk (ditto, plus rap. This actually seems to be really common for female wrestlers. There are lots more examples.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZHGPmb-VfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPSIuGXsIPs Or you can find a guitarist, and if necessary a vocalist. Hopefully I can get a few folks on the collab list you can reach out to.

This will be fairly late in the project. Music comes first, at least most of it. I'll be sure to reach out to you when we get closer, though! Done! Will you be doing rap? Chernabogue's right, both are valid, but Dracula's Castle is used in Castlevania: Judgement and is slightly better known, so that's what I put down at first. I'll add The Tragic Prince as an option, though. Of course, I'm a sucker for mashups....

To quote DarkeSword's original pitch for the album: Here are a couple of YouTube playlists with examples of entrances and theme songs. Also here are some sample diva theme songs for female wrestlers. You may notice that the presentation isn't just a song and a walk-on when the wrestler is introduced at an event. There's usually an introduction of some kind: sometimes a different piece of music, sometimes some kind of cheesy action sequence, sometimes just commentator banter. So we'll be making two different versions of this album: One "clean" version with just the wrestler themes, and one "event" version with all that extra stuff. This means that if you want to compose a short intro remix (30-90 seconds) to go with your main mix, that's an option--and an interesting chance to work with a very short source and a total lack of transition. Director: MindWanderer Co-Director: Chernabogue Check-In Dates: July 31, 2016 Nov. 20, 2016 April 15, 2017 July 15, 2017 Sept. 30, 2017 March 31, 2018 ReMixers First, we need ReMixers! Specifically, we need remixers who can produce songs that would work as wrestler intros. There's a fairly wide range of potential genres, but they're all loud, powerful, energetic, and epic. The playlists linked above are non-exhaustive examples you can use as a starting point. Tracklist Ultimately, I'd like to have an equal number of "faces" (heroes) and "heels" (villains and monsters). Some monsters come in pairs (The Creature and Igor, the Mummies), and if we use any of them, each one should have a corresponding tag team of heroes; this can either be a mashup of two character themes, or a single theme that covers two characters (e.g. John Morris and Eric Lecarde of Castlevania Bloodlines). Villain/monster mashups are also possible, counting as a tag team. Same thing goes for female characters: each female hero should be paired with a female villain. We can work all that when it gets close to the end, though. Here's my wish list of wrestlers, along with suggestions as to theme music. The specific music source for each isn't necessarily set in stone, but it's my opinion as to what the most appropriate choice for them would be. If you'd like to go in a different direction, I'd love to hear it! Must Have: Theme Song of CastleMania: Vampire Killer (Wrestlemania Theme Songs Reference) Simon Belmont: Theme of Simon Belmont Alucard: Dracula's Castle and/or The Tragic Prince - @mikedm92 Dracula: Dance of Illusions - @Chernabogue Death: Evil's Symphonic Poem (optionally: Heart of Fire) Other Suggestions: Closing Song/Second Theme Song: I Am the Wind (Vocals required) Heels, Male/Neuter: The Creature: Den of Worship, Rising, and/or Demon Seed (or The Creature and Igor: Walking on the Edge) - @DarkEco Golem: The Tower of Dolls or Stone King Golem Doppelganger: Riddle or Resonance of Malevolent Souls Galamoth: Galamoth's Realm, Robot Factory, or Curse Zone (Additional option: Crucial Moment) Olrox: Death Ballad and/or Dance of Pales Isaac: Young Nobleman of Madness Joachim Armster: Melancholy Joachim Walter Bernhard: Dark Night Toccata Brauner: Esquisse of Violence Albus: Sorrow's Distortion Heels, Female: Medusa: Cross Your Heart a.k.a. Crucifix Held Close (optionally: Stalker) Carmilla: Bloody Tears, Monster Dance, Dwelling of Doom, Repose of Souls, and/or Carmilla Elizabeth Bartley: Calling from Heaven Celia Fortner: Evil Invitation - @Ophanin Faces, Male: Trevor Belmont: Beginning - Moiré Effect (@SuprMelO and @bluumonk) Grant Danasty: Clockwork - @DarkEco Christopher Belmont: Battle of the Holy Richter Belmont: Divine Bloodlines Eric Lecarde: Iron-Blue Intention Nathan Graves: Awake - @Hypetreme Leon Belmont: Lament of Innocence Hector: The Curse of Darkness Soma Cruz: Castle Corridor Julius Belmont: Don't Wait Until Night a.k.a. Can't Wait Until the Night Jonathan Morris: Invitation of a Crazed Moon John Morris: Reincarnated Soul Faces, Female: Sypha Belnades: Mad Forest: @GCJ Maria Renard: Slash Charlotte Aulin: The Hidden Curse Shanoa: An Empty Tome (alternate version): @ibeginwiththeendinmind Tag Teams: The Mummy Men: Wicked Child (or Akmodan II: In Search of the Secret Spell) Stella and Loretta Lecarde: Dance of Sadness Or any combination of two related heels or faces from the above Legend: Available Claimed Early WIP Substantial WIP Complete draft Final WAV So far we have a lot of rock/metal represented, and I'm not sure how many of those will include vocals (highly recommended), and just one confirmed rap. I'd also really like at least one Mexican-inspired remix (making one wrestler a luchador), one orchestral remix, and at least one explicit tribute to Xavier Woods (which includes funk, rap, and even EDM). Female wrestlers' themes are typified by female vocalists, either rap or heavily autotuned. More rap would also be great. Posted or accepted-to-be-posted remixers can just make a claim and dive right in. Anyone else, I'll need an audition of your most best, most appropriate work for the style we're looking for. Collaboration Resource List Anyone interested in collaborating, let me know what you want to do and I'll put you on the list. Electric guitarists and vocalists are especially needed. Electric Guitar: @HeavenWraith, @Tuberz McGee, @Cyril the Wolf, @Laarx Acoustic Guitar: @Cyril the Wolf, @Laarx Vocals (male): @Cyril the Wolf Vocals (rap): Wanted Voice Actors For the "event" version of the album, we'll need some voice actors. At the very least, we'll need 3: an announcer and two commentators. The wrestlers can, optionally, have monologues during their own songs, or dialogues with their opponents. We'll recruit for these when all music is at least at the substantial WIP stage Mastering Kind of goes without saying, but not without doing. Somewhat more involved in this than in most albums, since this person will be responsible for layering on the voiceovers and any audience effects. Art In addition to front and back cover art, I'd really like to have character art of each of the wrestlers. My personal vision is that none of the wrestlers actually be monsters, just actors dressed up like them, or even just vaguely related to them thematically. Real pro wrestling has wrestlers like "The Rock," "The Snake," and even "Boogeyman," so having monster names seems perfectly appropriate.

Actually, I just noticed that the arps in Out of Time and Inner Quarters are really similar, so that's why. And they both open with that arp exposed. Tough choice this week. I think Wildfire's mix stands better alone, but Ether's makes better use of Riddle especially.

It's funny that Wildfire isn't familiar with Castlevania in general, since I'm hearing a strong Out of Time influence in her mix this week, more prominently than I hear Riddle.

Thanks! YouTube can help me with the lack of wrestling background, but it would be really great if I could get the help of someone who both knows the "genre" and has the ear to vet the submissions. And even better would be if they'd worked on an album before so they can make sure I'm doing what needs to be done. At the very least I need someone on ear duty.

Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation 2016 Voting for the Soma Bracket, Round 2 is open until Wednesday, March 2 at 12:00 PM PST. See the competitions calendar for your timezone. Please vote for your single favorite ReMix of the three. Participants, you may vote as you like; if in doubt, vote for yourself. Download the remixes! Sources: Abandoned Castle, 1479 Inner Quarters, 2035 Inner Halls, 1476 (Riddle)

Soma Round 2 is up! I'll get the voting thread up in a bit. Speaking of voting, the Alucard Round 2 vote has ended in a dead-even tie! However, Gario didn't vote, and Aleix did. Before making any decisions about how to proceed, I want to check in with both of them; if Gario was following my initial instructions that participants not vote (which I changed based on the new forum poll system), then this was a miscommunication and he should probably proceed. Otherwise, we can either have both of them advance and add a round to the compo, or they can do a tiebreaker speed round this week if they're up for it.

Less than 24 hours left this week! I have only one out of 3 Soma Round 2 entries in. Also, voting for Alucard Round 2 is neck-and-neck, so get those votes in!

Random thoughts, in no particular order: To best approximate a real event, it would probably be best to have an equal number of heroes as villains. It would be pretty hilarious if the "Heel" wrestlers (monsters) went by their "actor" names from Castlevania I. Boris Karloffice, Love Chaney, Christopher Bee, etc. Castlevania: Judgment has "official" character themes for several characters, both heroes and monsters. Not that we'd have to stick with these, but they're a good starting point. There should probably be two versions, one with voiceovers, crowd noises, etc. and one without. The one with could also have an announcers' intro and other "event" segments. I'm already planning on organizing an OCR-I for CCoI. This might actually be a good opportunity for me to get my feet wet, since it would have a couple months' head start, and I'd need a co-director anyway--I can put in the time and effort, and I know Castlevania pretty well, but I have no album experience, I don't have a sufficiently good ear for quality standards, and the last pro wrestling event I watched was when The Undertaker made his WWF debut. But if someone is willing to help with that side of things, I'd be happy to take on what I can.

It's all about PR and presentation. Even in SFV, in which the gamers know perfectly well that vs. mode is where they'll spend 99% of their time, the fact that what were "core features" of the series thus far are now missing seems like a major oversight. You can justify other choices all you want, but making that strong first impression is where most of the money is. A lot of developers are spending a lot of research money figuring out what players want. That's important, but you also need to provide players what they think they want. You need them to invest, and then also to keep them there. A lot of companies seem to forget this these days. Once you decide you're smarter than your consumers, you've lost. Also, since Street Fighter has such a long history and large fanbase, people care about the characters. A story mode helps cement that and create investment. For an example of how staged releases can work well, you just have to look at Nintendo's current methods. You have Splatoon, an unknown property, which came out with a small single-player campaign, for players to learn the ropes, a fairly small but diverse range of weapons, a single online multiplayer mode, and a local multiplayer mode. Enough to give players a taste of everything. They also promised a lot more to come, for free. Over the next 6 months, they added 3 more online modes, a ton more weapons and outfits, and new stages with new mechanics. Huge success. Similar story for Super Mario Maker. The base game worked really well as it was; the additions of checkpoints, an online companion, and completion statistics are gravy. The new objects aren't even necessary at all, but they do show continuing support from Nintendo, which is valuable PR. For their established fighting series, Smash Bros., they released a thoroughly full game. Although the "story" mode was much weaker than in previous iterations, it was more closely based on the multiplayer game and served as better practice for it. Then they released several more characters and stages for money. It actually surprises me how much they're able to charge for the DLC for this one, but apparently they've hit a price point that works well for them. Mario Kart 8 has only released cosmetic stuff (usually a good bet) and new tracks. The tracks are a really good value compared to the initial cost of the game, but again, this seems to be a price point that works for this game. Again, the original release was feature-complete, and the extras are just extras.

Yes.

That's correct, assuming 100% participation. It's similar to Darkesword's Gauntlet compos. I'm guessing some will opt out, but the more that participate, the more points each participant will earn. The highest score at the end of three rounds will represent Dracula in the final battle. Since we have some newer mixers, I'll put forward a suggestion: Moonlight Nocturne is a long and complex piece, 1:45 long with not a lot of repetition and no loop. Rather than attempting to tackle the whole thing in order and smooshing your own source into it somewhere, you may have more luck breaking it apart into some of the more recognizable themes. Just a suggestion, not a rule or anything, just bear in mind that you don't have to use all of it, but identifiable parts of it should constitute a significant part of your remix.

Download Alucard Round 2 here! As for the Simon bracket, you know the drill. Three-way faceoff: Sir_NutS: Entrance, 1691 vs. War Machine: Dungeon, 1691 vs. OA: Entrance, 1797. Special shout-outs to YoshiBlade, Jorito, and Trism; these were especially strong entries despite your loss this round. May Dracula grow strong on your blood! The source for the Dracula bracket, Round 1, is Moonlight Nocturne from Symphony of the Night! Please use "Moonlight Nocturne, 1797" as the name of the theme in your remix titles, e.g. MindWanderer - Time for Bed (Clock Tower, 1691 and Moonlight Nocturne, 1797).mp3

Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation 2016 Voting for the Alucard Bracket, Round 2 is open until Wednesday, February 24 at 12:00 PM PST. See the competitions calendar for your timezone. Participants, you may vote as you like. Download the remixes! Sources: Burning Town, 1792 (Divine Bloodlines) Warakiya Village, 1476 (Beginning) Master's Keep, 1944 (Gaze up at the Darkness)

I'm guessing the energy was not found, since I don't have an entry, and there remain only 45 minutes. Should be interesting anyway, since both Gario and Aleix have said this was an unusual entry for them.

Fixed (a couple of days ago actually). Right now there's a 2-point gap, so it may not happen, but if it does... DarkeSword usually gives himself the tiebreaking vote, but since he's musically awesome and I'm not, that stinks of hubris in my case. If it weren't the last of the 3 brackets, I'd throw in a special round to whittle it down, but as it stands, that would make everyone else be put on hold for at least a couple of weeks. Could throw a monkey wrench into the other two brackets to give them something else to play with in the meantime....