MindWanderer

There's also Impact's Cinematic Synthetic Drums, which is free for Kontakt or in WAV format. Worth adding to anyone's library just 'cause. They're definitely fakey, but the sample you provided is heavily electronic as well.

Yes, no source restriction.

Season 3, Episode 2: Iron Remixer Challenge: Bleep' 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 ToneBytes Bleep'! http://tonebytes.com/bleep/ Bleep' is a VSTi synthesizer that simulates the sound of the Commodore SID chip. It has an interface that's simple to understand while retaining many powerful options. You can download it from the ThaSauce page or from CNET. If you remix on a Mac or a DAW that doesn't support VST's, you have permission to fake it using whatever tools are at your disposal. Allez remix! 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, and get started on your mix. 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. [*]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. 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 Episodes Season 1 Compilation Season 2 Compilation [thread=40611]Pilot Episode: "Beginnings"[/thread] [thread=41556]Season 1, Episode 1: "Spooky!"[/thread] [thread=41864]Season 1, Episode 2: "Origins of Home Gaming"[/thread] [thread=42143]Season 1, Episode 3: Special "You Can Never Have Too Much Mega Man" edition[/thread] [thread=42485]Season 1, Episode 4: "Yesteryear"[/thread] [thread=42797]Season 1, Episode 5: "Ultra-Modern"[/thread] [thread=43124]Season 1 Finale: "Touched by a Star"[/thread] [thread=43437]Season 2, Episode 1: "Country Road"[/thread] [thread=43702]Season 2, Episode 2: "Tropical Vacation!"[/thread] [thread=45320]Season 2, Episode 3: Special "Wish on This!" edition[/thread] [thread=45909]Season 2, Episode 4: "The Need for Speed!"[/thread] [thread=46454]Season 2, Episode 5: "Pacifism"[/thread] [thread=46676]Season 2 Finale: "Rising Stars"[/thread]

There will be a new thread for the next round. Look for it on Friday.

You're too modest. You're a damn good remixer, and you won't have forgotten all you know in a year. Using the same DAW and being able to chat live are plusses, but emailing WIPs back and forth and commenting on arrangement, EQ, compression, instrumentation, etc. etc. can be massively helpful. If I had time in my life right now to remix, I'd definitely want to take advantage of that. Ah, I apologize for that. I took that step out, because in the past seasons, everyone had to sign up, then wait for signups to close to get their pairings. I wanted an easier, faster, lower-commitment system this time around (not to mention a lesser commitment on my own time), so my intent was for novices to just snatch up volunteer stars and go for it. I'll clarify that in the rules.

Well, that's one cancellation and one no-show (assuming Esperado and Rexy even got in touch). Thus closeth the inaugural round on ThaSauce. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to further lower the barrier to completion. I have an experiment in mind for next round which may help. There's also the "versus mashup" format which I previously reserved for special events, which might help with writer's block.

My guess would be a bimodal distribution: One peak with those of us who grew up in the NES era (late 30's now) and one when good, cheap DAWs started becoming available when they were young adults (probably late 20's, early 30's).We might be getting into a new peak now, though. This is the generation of VGM winning Grammies and VGM concerts becoming a thing.

Deadline is in 24 hours, no submissions yet. Get 'em in!

This is actually something I see a lot when these discussions come up in compos. The remixer thinks they used a lot of the source because it borrows heavily from the source's bass, harmony, chord structure, etc. but uses the melody only briefly. The accompaniment becomes a lot more obvious when you've spent several hours listening to the original and pulling it apart (especially if you started with a MIDI). Most listeners are expecting to hear mostly the melody, repeatedly, throughout, although they're tolerant of a certain amount of transformation. Neither is wrong, but they're listening to and for very different things.

That's weird... I usually have a hard time with subtle use of theme (I agree with the OP about that Shadow Man mix, and I still don't get where Stone Man is in Crystal Cypher), but it was really clear to me in Blackout Tower. And, in fact, I'm going through the votes and comments; the presiding sentiment seems to be that you made better use of the Elec Man theme than Will did. Everyone picked up on it despite the key change, and you used the second verse (elegantly) which he barely used at all.

That's really nice! Good source use while remaining creative. I loved the chill take on a normally energetic theme (and you don't see much chill 9-bit music). I have a feeling you might get some crits on EQ, but that's not a strength of mine.

Also, it's worth pointing out that Gario (the mod reviewer on that piece) said that it was a close call on originality. I think if you cleaned up the production issues he mentioned, it would really make the judges think hard about whether to accept it anyway. OCR does accept remixes that stay vary close to the original, even these days. Pearly Gates is very similar to the source stylistically (while adding original content), and Umaro's New Groove uses the original melody almost verbatim while taking a creative direction in style and flow. Guile's Theme Goes With Metal is a more typically conservative remix: mostly very cover-ish but with a lengthy original bridge. All are perfectly legitimate approaches.

There's a famous old sci-fi story, I forget which one, in which artistic expression entirely stops because all the ideas have been used already. I think OCR goes a long way in showing how even a "used" idea can create original music.

Brandon Strader also posted some practice stems [thread=44793]here[/thread].

A Splatoon-style game in the MMBN universe would be pretty awesome. Everything after O.G. Mega Man is kind of postapocalyptic and could make a nice military shooter if reskinned enough. I don't play many of those games, but Mega Man X redone in the style of Mass Effect 3... hell yeah.

Make sure you clarify whether the source or the remix itself, or both, need to be horror-themed. For instance, there's a lot of Castlevania rock out there. I also did a horror-themed Sonic/Mega Man mix for B4C2 I might improve on (though I probably couldn't make a deadline this year).

Doesn't cover all the GM sounds, but a good place to start might be http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/explore/make_music But yes, you can extract wav's with SFZed. Although IIRC it creates one giant wav with all the samples end-to-end.

The fact that I didn't even know that means they did a crap job of marketing the feature. Plus it was based on Mega Man 1, which no one loves. Plus it was on the PSP, which no one owns. Plus the PSP has no native content sharing. It would work better on the 3DS or modern consoles; it would be amazing with Steam Workshop.Granted, other aspects of MMU may have had problems, and the name wouldn't stick.

Appropriately, I just ran across this today: http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/02/10/watching-people-code-next-big-thing-live-streaming-video/ If watching people code is becoming popular, watching people remix might be more popular than I thought. I personally thought that, watching AGDQ, watching all the runners and staff hanging out and interacting was part of the fun. Maybe this could be held right before or after PAX or MAGfest when a bunch of remixers are already in the same place.

AGDQ and Jason Covenant's recent fantastic one-hour compo entries brought an idea to mind. What if a bunch of the best and fastest remixers in the community got together to do a speed remix marathon and streamed it for charity, similar to AGDQ? Give each person an hour, two hours, probably no more than 3 hours, up to them, and let the donors vote with their dollars on the game, source, or style. And maybe to bring it a little closer to home, split the donations 30/70 between OCR and a popular charity (cancer or whatever). I don't know if it's legal or kosher to set aside a small amount to reimburse travel expenses. I have no experience with these sorts of things, but I thought I'd throw it out there. I imagine the proceeds would depend more on getting the word out than anything else, but if were even 1% as successful as AGDQ that'd be $15k.

Me too, but then I never expected Nintendo to release official support for fan mods. If things like Kaizo Mario can result in Mario Maker, then maybe Street Fighter x Mega Man (which Capcom hosts on their own site) plus Mario Maker will make Capcom think a fan creation kit is a good idea. Stranger things have happened. Never gonna happen. Even an American company wouldn't get that personal. A Japanese one, no chance in hell. Or other gritty 3D action game... like Resident Evil or Monster Hunter. Which are doing quite well. Exactly. There's no winning scenario here. Make a game that pleases the fans but won't impress most folks who've played any of the other, what, 30 pure platformers in the series, and won't make much money? Or use the name to make something totally different, alienating the fans of the classic games, but still being restricted by the series concepts?(I personally think there's room for a dark cyberpunk Mega Man take, a la the Protomen and the Megas's interpretations, but I'm not sure how well that would fly. Maybe a movie someday.) Not sure how making more entries in several tired old franchises is any more safe than making more entries in an even older, more tired franchise. Konami at least tries to innovate as much as possible with each new Metal Gear and Castlevania game, and they actually do try to launch new IP's pretty frequently (though they only bring them to the US when they do well). I think more likely the exact opposite. If people are willing to spend $10-$15 each on, say, a million copies (which would make it more than 3 times as successful as Shovel Knight), then Capcom will be even more firmly inclined to leave retro platformers of this nature to the indie league and keep their AAA hands off.

I question those numbers. They're counting downloads of current titles, but not of older ones like Mega Man. I also don't believe that Ghosts 'n' Goblins for the NES outsold Mega Man 2. Dino Crisis, Dino Crisis 2, and Commando are also bizarrely high.Mega Man 2 is also probably one of the most highly pirated/emulated games out there, FWIW. Retro games just aren't a cash cow for a AAA studio. Supporting Mega Man peripherally--homages and cameos in other games, official support of remix artists and fan projects, not getting in the way of deliberate clones like Mighty No. 9--is a good way to go. It acknowledges the fans and maintains good will while not sinking development money into financial stinkers and diluting the brand even further. Better this than Sonic Boom. Maybe if Mario Maker is successful they'll reconsider Mega Man Universe.

Please note that the rules have been streamlined to make it easier for me to keep running this on a continuous basis, and to lower the barrier for entering and participating. Sorry this overlaps so much with MnP this time, but I made promises. Since I don't have to wait for source selection, I should be able to run a strict 3-week schedule.

Season 3, Episode 1: Arise From Your Grave! RMWtS (now RWS by popular decree) is back! To celebrate, this round is about those who refuse to die. As your primary source, please choose the theme of a character, boss, place, etc. that makes an unexpected return after being thought gone for good. 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. 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. [*]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. [*]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. 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 Episodes Season 1 Compilation Season 2 Compilation [thread=40611]Pilot Episode: "Beginnings"[/thread] [thread=41556]Season 1, Episode 1: "Spooky!"[/thread] [thread=41864]Season 1, Episode 2: "Origins of Home Gaming"[/thread] [thread=42143]Season 1, Episode 3: Special "You Can Never Have Too Much Mega Man" edition[/thread] [thread=42485]Season 1, Episode 4: "Yesteryear"[/thread] [thread=42797]Season 1, Episode 5: "Ultra-Modern"[/thread] [thread=43124]Season 1 Finale: "Touched by a Star"[/thread] [thread=43437]Season 2, Episode 1: "Country Road"[/thread] [thread=43702]Season 2, Episode 2: "Tropical Vacation!"[/thread] [thread=45320]Season 2, Episode 3: Special "Wish on This!" edition[/thread] [thread=45909]Season 2, Episode 4: "The Need for Speed!"[/thread] [thread=46454]Season 2, Episode 5: "Pacifism"[/thread] [thread=46676]Season 2 Finale: "Rising Stars"[/thread]

God damn that's tempting. Might be able to squeeze in a bit of time for this--it's an MnP and I've remixed this source before.