MindWanderer

Season 3, Episode 6: Iron Remixer Challenge The Iron Remixer Challenge is a theme based on a particular instrument or effect, called the "secret ingredient." Remixers can use the secret ingredient as a "main ingredient" (lead), a "spice" (harmony, pad, arpeggio, or other accompaniment), or both, but should make an effort to take advantage of it and illustrate its use, i.e. to "best express the unique qualities of the theme ingredient." This round's secret ingredient is Togu Audio Line's TAL-NoiseMaker! Get it at http://kunz.corrupt.ch/products/tal-noisemaker(32 and 64-bit, Windows or Mac). TAL-Noisemaker is a subtractive synth with several customizable oscillators, filters, and LFO's. It has a distinctive sound that can easily be used in almost any type of electronic music, and has a lot of room for creativity in sound synthesis. About ReMixing With the Stars ReMixing With the Stars is intended to give beginning remixers some support, encouragement, and mentoring in their quest to become great, and as a sidenote, to become posted remixers. Beginners are mentored by experienced remixers to push their abilities to new heights and submit collaborative works according to the theme of the month. Who's a "Star" and who's a "Novice?" There are no fixed rules on this. Originally, RWS treated anyone with an OCR mixpost as a "Star" and anyone else as a "Novice." Later it evolved so that anyone could elect to be a Star, but posted remixers couldn't be Novices. The reason was because a lot of really good remixers expressed a lack of confidence in their abilities and didn't feel they were good enough to mentor someone else, but RWS gets a lot more Novice than Star signups. Now anyone can sign up as either, but please be honest with yourself. If you have several direct posts to OCR, you're probably in a better position to give help than receive it. If you have a giant bowl of Wooden Spoons from PRC and mostly only win by default, the reverse is probably true. But if you feel that you're pretty good and your OCR submissions just get NO'ed due to minor nitpicks, go ahead and sign up as a Star if you want. If you have been posted but each submission takes you months and multiple resubmits, feel free to sign up as a Novice. Or not, it's your choice. If you're on the fence, bear in mind that being a Star is a much smaller time commitment. One caveat: This should not be your first attempt at creating music in a DAW. The Stars' job is to provide mixing, production, and arrangement advice. It's not to teach you how to choose or install a DAW, load VST's, work with a MIDI piano roll, arm your microphone, etc. If that's where you are right now, try PRC or MnP as a first compo. Rules Enrollment/Pairings: Stars: Sign up by posting in this thread that you're available. Mention any time restrictions or or other limitations you might have, or if you have any particular strengths you'd like to offer (playing a live instrument is a great one). Novices: If one or more Stars have signed up, just post to claim one! First come, first served. Get in touch with your Star as soon as you claim them, so you can get started on your mix as soon as the theme is posted. I encourage Novices to rotate between multiple Stars to get different learning experiences and perspectives, but if the same people keep signing up week after week, repeat pairings are fine. If there aren't any unclaimed Stars, feel free to post to say that you'd like one. Exception: If you signed up for the last episode and got paired with a Star, but did not turn in a mix, you get bumped to the bottom of the list this round. You may only get a partner if there's a Star left over at the end of the enrollment period. This penalty is only for the one episode unless this becomes a chronic issue for you. Pairings for everyone who signed up within the official "enrollment period" will be posted at that time. However, if anyone wants to sign up after that, or can't find a partner until after that, they're welcome to join in. Mixes: The Novice must be the primary remixer. Stars can contribute by giving advice, performing with a live instrument or vocals, and with production, including sample quality, balance, and minor arrangement adjustments to fix timing or dissonance issues. If you don't use the same DAW, you can exchange MIDIs or rendered stems. The Star may also contribute a short solo segment arranged entirely by them. No one other than the Novice and Star may help in any substantial way. You can use multiple sources in your remix, but at least 51% of the remix must be based on one or more qualifying sources. For example, if you use 3 sources, and only one fits the theme, but it's present in more than half the mix, then it's fine. Submissions: All entries must be submitted to ThaSauce by the deadline. Check the ThaSauce page for the exact amount of remaining time (the image in my sig should also be correct). Give credit to your partner in the submission description, and provide link(s) to the source(s) you used. File sizes cannot exceed 20MB. If you have trouble uploading the file or getting a ThaSauce account working, post a link to your mix in this thread and I'll get it on there. If this is your first ThaSauce compo entry, don't do it at the last minute! Voting: Use the ThaSauce page to vote. Entrants (Novices or Stars) may not vote for themselves, but your mix gets a bonus first-place vote if you vote. Support your partner by voting! The deadline is on the ThaSauce page (or in my sig, once voting has started). Previous Seasons Season 1 Compilation Season 2 Compilation Pilot Episode: "Beginnings" Season 1, Episode 1: "Spooky!" Season 1, Episode 2: "Origins of Home Gaming" Season 1, Episode 3: Special "You Can Never Have Too Much Mega Man" edition Season 1, Episode 4: "Yesteryear" Season 1, Episode 5: "Ultra-Modern" Season 1 Finale: "Touched by a Star" Season 2, Episode 1: "Country Road" Season 2, Episode 2: "Tropical Vacation!" Season 2, Episode 3: Special "Wish on This!" edition Season 2, Episode 4: "The Need for Speed!" Season 2, Episode 5: "Pacifism" Season 2 Finale: "Rising Stars"

Scores are updated, and corrected for the fact that Jorito voted for himself. (Fortunately his third-place vote could be deduced.) Tree Fort in the Clouds by Mark Sparling: 20 points Macaques and Margaritas by fxsnowy: 19 points Turtle Soup by Yoshiblade: 14 points Draculesti Hall by Jakos: 13 points Good work all around, and again, special thanks for all the Stars who volunteered this round. Next round signups will open shortly.

Hm, not an overwhelming amount of response here. Is this still going to happen?

Fortunately, it looks like all 4 other contestants got entries in (although Yoshiblade didn't specify his source). Still a good turnout!

24 hours to go, nothing submitted yet. Hope everyone is going to be ready!

I was waiting to see if someone could test with Sforzando in FL and give some input, but since they haven't, I'll throw in my 2 cents. There aren't massive differences between the different sf2 players, although Sforzando is a bit of an odd duck in that it technically isn't an sf2 player at all--it's an SFZ player with an sf2->SFZ converter. Jeskola and ShortCircuit (either version) are my go-to sf2 players. Some people like Phenome but I find that it's more muted than the alternatives.

Wait, there's a VST that would let me remix K.K. Slider singing Mega Man music? <heads straight for demo page> Well, partially. He has 5 different phonemes, I think ("Wei," "Mi," "Oh," "Now," and "Na"), and this is more like a "wei-oo" and some hard-to-name vowels. Still, these are pretty cool. If the STriFE and F2FM demos are made 100% with their respective VST's (minus the percussion and true vocals, I assume, and the chords you mentioned in the description), I definitely want to try those out. Edit: However, looking this up led me to a Youtube video where someone made K.K. Slider singing "Poker Face" and linked the soundfont he used! Can't wait to spring that on an unsuspecting compo.

Of course!

Looks like when I edit an event, it disappears entirely. Presumably it will come back when a mod approves it, but this is definitely undesirable.

Correct. It's partially based, loosely, on some theatrical Mickey cartoons (e.g. "Mickey's Fire Brigade"), and partially created out of whole cloth based on Disney characters. Nothing in it comes from a TV show in particular. On the other hand, if you wanted to write the theme song to a theoretical "The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse" TV show, that would work under option B.

Never heard of it, but it looks legit. As long as the source you remix isn't taken from the show. Ehh... "Steamboat Willie" debuted on the silver screen. Mickey's actually had precious few appearances that were first shown on TV. If the game you choose is specifically based on something that came out on TV first, that would be OK. Time's a wastin', and no word from KingTiger, so let's assume he isn't signing up. Yoshiblade with Esperado, Mark Sparling with Jorito. Go for it!

Sure. TMNT was originally a comic book, but the games are based on the cartoon. Sure, though the usual OCR guidelines for indie games apply (i.e. it shouldn't be too obscure). In this case, if it's officially licensed, it's probably fine. For instance, Transformers Legends (based on G1) would be OK (I'm assuming it has a unique soundtrack, I haven't played it myself), though Transformers: Age of Extinction would not (being based on the movie).

Yes, that's more like it. Sorry about the nomenclature; these aren't "remixes" but could be considered "ReMixes." Staffpad is only good for notations and very rough mockups, though, so they're not really good for promotion either. The problem with putting none of your music online where people can find it is that they have no reason to be interested in you. I hope that once you have an actual chamber recording, you'll put up at least one of them, or even just a sample of it. Your Facebook page links to your YouTube channel, so right now you have a serious branding problem. I'd personally suggest taking the Let's Play videos off the channel, at least until you have way more videos that show off what your group is actually about.

I knew that would be peoples' first choice! Yes, just not the title theme. The Moon is allowed even though we don't really need any more of those.... Mark Sparling is signed up as a Novice. Esperado, Jorito, and KingTiger are the Stars potentially up for grabs if they agree (since all expressed some hesitancy one way or another).

That video you have on the About section of your Facebook page is just about the worst self-promotion I've ever seen. It's almost inaudible, only lasts a few seconds, and it's even upside-down. In fact, I can't find any examples of your music at all--just videos cut to other peoples' music and some interviews and Let's Plays. I love listening to VG remix bands' stuff but you sure don't make it easy.

It seems like the video game world is on a giant nostalgia kick lately. First Shovel Knight and Mighty No. 9, now Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Well, you know what else that generation gets nostalgic about? Cartoons. For this round, each participant should either: Remix one or more sources from game(s) based on TV show(s), OR Remix any source as if it were to be the theme song for a new cartoon based on that game. (Lyrics optional but recommended.) If taking option A, please follow the usual OCR rule that you can't remix a source that was itself originally from a TV show or other medium. Also, it must be based on a TV show directly; for instance, Disney's Aladdin is out even though there was also a TV show based on the movie, because the games are also based on the movie and not the show.

Pairings thus far: Anorax with WillRock gercr with Garpocalypse Jakos with timaeus222 fxsnowy with Geoffrey Taucer Novices Mark Sparling and Yoshiblade are currently unpaired. As for unpaired Stars, we have: Esperado, who would prefer to be a Novice if there are enough Stars Jorito, who will be a Star if we're one Star sort KingTiger, who may or may not sign up. I think I've picked a theme KingTiger will like (up shortly), but if not, Mark can pair with Jorito and Yoshiblade with Esperado. If he does, then either Jorito can sit out as not needed (wow!), or Esperado can wait to see if there's another signup so he can fill whichever side is needed. In any event, thanks to all the Stars who have volunteered so far. This event lives or dies by your generously offered time, and I know all our budding remixers greatly appreciate it.

That's fine. I'm including a pre-theme signup period by request, but if you want to join after the announcement, you can. Your partner will just have a slightly late start.

Very cool. I'm concerned that is is a bit medley-ish, despite the constant X-Naut arp (which also gets a little old). The part starting at 0:58 sounds like it's from a Sonic game, but the Sonic OST's aren't my strong point so I can't place the one I'm thinking of. Also quite a bit like Ryu's theme from Street Fighter 2.

That's perfect. Just being someone's mentor for a couple of weeks is really the main point. Being able to contribute to the actual project is more along the lines of demonstrating what the novice could have done with a few more tweaks. Looking like a good turnout this round!

Ok, probably not the best source, and I forgot about Pokemon. A Pokemon Snap version of the Buzz Lightyear/Men in Black type rides is a distinct possibility. But I maintain that Star Fox and Zelda primarily target the young adult to adult demographic these days. They might be intended for adults to recognize and buy for their kids, perhaps, but Mario and Pokemon target kids directly. The Wii did so amazingly well not because of the full line of Nintendo properties, but because it appealed to a wider range of audience than the other consoles (which focused on the "core" young adult/adult demographic). A lot of folks only had games like Wii Sports and Sports Resort, Wii Fit, Wii Play, and maybe Mario Kart or Mario Party. The Wii sold 101 million units, Sports Resort 32 million, Mario Kart Wii 35 million, Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus collectively 44 million, New SMB Wii 28 million (probably including pack-ins), but Twilight Princess only 7 million and I can't even think of any other non-Mario Nintendo titles in the running (source: vgchartz.com... I know, not 100% accurate, but usually not far off the mark). Even Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 were only 11 and 7 million, respectively.

The article explicitly says this won't be a new park, just one or more attractions at once of their existing parks. I'm certainly expecting a kart ride, and probably a kiddie play area. But I don't expect them to add anything more than that. Adults would love to see Star Fox, Zelda, etc. but younger folks don't recognize those brands. (See this video).