Brandon Strader

I can only hope to, some decades from now, be a fraction of the artistic genius this man was.

What can I say.. David Bowie was a legend and shaped so much of what music has become today, in so many different genres. I count him among my influences. It is sad to lose such a, still active and amazing, musician... not to mention great actor. Labyrinth is a classic.

What about Battletoads and Double Dragon? You say Double Dragon has 8 mixes on the site... so why DD in particular, I am just curious.. there's no mixes of Ni No Kuni, Remember Me, E.G.G., ObsCure, just off the top of my head.. how many Mickey Mousecapades mixes are on the site? Even Batman has 4 mixes.. is DD twice as deserving of more mixes? Like I know I was critical of the butting the line thing, cause there's lots of stuff in the inbox, but I am JUST CURIOUS, this ain't no butthurt line of questioning. If I am somehow able to finish my move and record something by the deadline I'll surely send it in. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture? And yes I edited my post because I misspelled a game title not once, not twice, but 2 times edit again: going for a fourth time... my gosh american public school system

No love for Brandon Strader? He makes good remixes You're named after my favorite Beyond Twilight album though, Section X.. really good stuff. There's not really any remixes in the style of Section X, probably because it would just be so hard to make one in that style. I could see it being done, maybe as a medley of some FF6 stuff. But the singer, Kelly Sundown Carpenter, is on my shortlist of best vocalists out there right now.. would be hard for someone to match up to that quality and performance ability. But yeah just keep an eye on the front page, good remixes posted there.

Jorito's WIP is very cool Looking forward to more WIPs, and completed songs!

The article we've all been waiting for: http://www.thewrap.com/inevitable-star-wars-the-force-awakens-backlash-as-critics-fans-turn-on-reboot/

It needs to come to PS4 too so I can buy it!

Hey, thanks for the answer Larry! But isn't there some concern about Youtube? Most of the time whenever I make a list of sources many might get removed due to some copyright claim or other problem. Such as when you list sources for an album. Would OCR be able to upload the source for games in accordance with Fair Use so they would not get removed, would they be unlisted? Or what? I am asking because I don't know how it would work.

I got you all a digital download code for free music, I'm gonna hide it below in white text so that it isn't taken by people not involved with secret santa: www.ocremix.org To everyone else, hope you had a good Christmas

Yeah depends on how they did it. If they had to find an mp3 of each source, and upload it to youtube manually, I could see that taking a heck of a long time, and only getting harder as time goes on. They probably couldn't simple link existing ones due to the possibility of videos being removed, obnoxious uploader editing, or claims of some sort. What would be cool though is if they used a simple embed player in the mixpost page for it, rather than trying to put it on youtube. Then they wouldn't have to worry about third party moderation and could put up whatever they wanted without fear of it being edited. The usage in the context of mixposts would probably be safe under fair use for educational purposes or some mumbo. But even if they went the big route with youtube uploads and all that, it'd be fun, and surely it wouldn't be something they dumped on 1 guy.

More reviews is better than less.. I do think it would be awesome if sources were put on mixpost pages too along with the download and the youtube preview

Sneap forum from 2009 talking about what is arguably In Flames' worst or best album.. YAWN... I'd trust Sneap himself just due to his amount of experience but not the goobs on that forum. NOT AFTER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME. That forum gave me a good leg up when I got into OCR but that was about it. As for the technique they mentioned, nothing seems wrong with it, doesn't seem all that necessary though. You could mic the crisp and the 45 degree angle or whatever, separately, or just meet somewhere in the middle with 1 mic. Or just get the crispy cup sound. I like the control of using 1 mic instead of 9. To each their own though. The last time I used 2 SM57s was on older remixes so there's no real way to judge from those against my newer stuff which one was better. Maybe experience is more important than technique in regards to that, since my olderstuff is buttpoo

circa August 2013: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13741915/motorhead.mp3 RIP

It's also worth noting that there's endless possibilities when it comes to guitar tone and compressing or limiting won't be the right answer for all of them. You guys are using amp sims, and I'm guessing either 1 or both of you are using the Shreddage midi guitar library. While there are less possibilities with the library, mostly involving the engineering, mic placement, room sound, you still have the control over the amping. But then there's the issue of the amp sim, which in most cases will not give you as satisfying of a sound as you would get from reamping with a real amp. Both types of amp allow insane amounts of customization. I personally find amp sims a pain to work with, undependable, and inconsistent. I do work with them but I prefer not to. When I was saying I wanted to use a limiter on my heavy rhythms, I was talking about half-stack mic'd with an SM57 aimed near the center cup about an inch, maybe 2 inches away, depending on which guitar I'm using. Because oh, the pickups make a difference too. There are so many variables that any single answer won't be the right one for every situation. But that's what is so exciting about experimenting with different techniques. Being able to engineer specifically towards that sound from the ground up can be a lot of fun. I know the Ibanez S7320 would sound great with a limiter on it just because after using it so many times and amping it in so many different ways, I almost have a good grasp of what I would get with a specific setup. Make sure you bounce out your amp-sim tracks before you really start putting effects on them. Get the tone/sound you like, then bounce it, and put it back into the session as a rendered track. Then start doing your editing. At least with Guitar Rig I can always tell that it is changing my tone, or compressing it, or normalizing the volume, or doing SOMETHING I don't want it to do. So just to be safe, get it how you like it, save your preset or whatnot, and bounce.

I just didn't notice it in the last version because........... well, I really like this version of the forum software, and dug into what it offers a bit more The last one for whatever reason just seemed too confusing. As for who can do the punching, I nominate this guy

I liked the light saber duels in the prequels, especially the big final one in Episode 3, the choreography was amazing. It wasn't sped up and they just practiced it for months to get it down that well. Really impressive stuff. The comparison to an anime fight scene... well... look at DBZ, when they get stronger they fight pretty fancy don't they? They go a lot faster. They have more and better attacks. Even in a Star wars video game, like let's say The Force Unleashed, you'll gain more abilities and fight more fancy as you go along. From what I could tell they take a lot of stylistic choices from actual swordfighting in the earlier light saber duels (even in the original trilogy though it's a lot less advanced speed and movement-wise.) Plus EVERYONE knows if you spin or put on racing stripes, you'll move faster and have more power put into your movement. Though in the end its all up to preference, and it's cool to try different things. I'll always have that epic Episode 3 fight I can go back and watch on youtube or whatever. @AngelCityOutlaw How did you embed your youtube video the way you did? I thought that functionality got removed in the update. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwy412nttI

It's been years but the files are still active on dropbox. I am still learning, and always trying to do things a little differently for the better, or at the very least to get a different sound. For one thing I want to experiment in 2016 with making my mastering chain SMALLER. It has a lot of parts to it that aren't as necessary as I think. You could really get by with a simple linear phase EQ and limiter.... yeah -- that simple. But I want to also make it possible to put a compressor in there somewhere -- maybe a multi-band compressor. Nothing too harsh, but for applications where it would be useful, I'd have it, even if I have it turned off most of the time. How have the rest of you guys been updating and adjusting your mastering chains? What new discoveries have you made with EQing? After all this time I'm a little surprised at how I EQd those acoustic guitars, some things I've forgotten or lost along the way. High passing was probably a great idea, but I have not done that on acoustic guitars last year. I probably should. Body is good to have, and some low end, but not at the risk of having too much. You've always got the bass guitar to fill in the low frequencies anyway. I started using a different EQ in Cubase, I think it's called EQ30 or something similar, it has a lot more bands and more control, but seems nice and transparent. Also just to add, I want to experiment with using a limiter on heavy guitars. I know it is frowned upon at OCR to overcompress your guitar tracks, especially rhythms, but in the professional metal field using a limiter on rhythms is 1 of the single most common things. I know for a fact, from having talked to Vladimir from Mirrorthrone, that he uses a compressor on his rhythms or at least he did during the recording of Gangrene album which was also years ago. But I see the value in limiting more than compressing to get that nice guitar brick rather than a sausage

This is not an issue or a problem, just something I noticed and wanted to ask about. My forum ID number was 3123, but I noticed it is now changed to 3111. Is that because some accounts with lower numbers were deleted? Also what kind of effect does that have on the account database if any?

1 more thing I wanna point out is, look how far light saber fights have come since the OT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kpHK4YIwY4 this is 'wat' The battle at the end of episode 3 is the best of the entire saga by far. I hope they do another light saber battle in the new movies.. the one in episode 7 didn't really count, it was cool though, especially to see FN-24601 trying to fight with no experience against Kyle and not actually doing that bad

This is probably as much of a review as my previous statement but, this is the best mix on the site If that makes you sad (other remixers) get good I've accepted it

That's the best you could do? Why not link a video of Obi-Wan speaking with Qui-gon? You basically linked the Kylo Ren of the prequels

I think it took some time to warm up to the movie more than even the Prequels did for me, because I really liked the prequels. I felt like the dialogue wasn't quite as sophisticated in the new movie as it was even in the prequels. People also seemed a lot less mysterious or wise. The new characters, I get that they aren't in any way trained or restrained like perhaps Obi-Wan was in Episode 2/3. It's probably just what they were going for, more of a common folk vibe, but I missed the formality the characters had in previous movies, and the intelligent well-spoken dialogue. I'll need to see it again to really know how I feel about it, it's hard to tell from 1 substandard viewing.

What is the Star Wars Saga? Is that one of those non-Disney things that is isn't canon now? :3 Episode VIII seemed to be about a lot of non-Skywalkers for the most part. Sure, they were transporting a soccer ball that had a USB drive map to Luke but the majority of the movie was about Stimpy (Whatever her name is), Han Solo, Black Stormtrooper, Chewbacca, and Solo Kid. Leia didn't have much screen time. Luke had even less. He came out looking like a cheesily caped Yanni that made me want to watch Live at the Acropolis again

Sean Schafianski -- I have massive respect for you my friend. So much that I double, nearly triple-checked to make sure I spelled your name right. This is so many miles and leagues above my OCR solo debut remix. By most standards even more established remixers this would be seen as a strong remix. Sure, there's some oddness to the mixing... vocals a tad loud, would have preferred a little more body to the acoustics.. Starting at 1:07 it seemed like the kick and snare was loud, and the kick could have used more of a low-end boost to give it some warmth/thump, maybe around 80Hz.. bass presence in the mix seems a bit too sterile, a bit clean. But the performances are so amazingly well done and everything sounds so awesome, and distinctly Japanese-arrangement sounding. With Emi Evans singing on this, it would sound right out of NieR perhaps. Maybe for the upcoming NieR 2? It's weird that around here critiques can be summed up to "I wasn't bothered by THIS..." But with this song, I find myself not really being bothered by any particular element. I love the piano, both the sound and the sequencing (or performance, not gonna assume). Aforementioned nitpicks don't even bother me, they're just things that I personally would have dug hearing differently but doesn't affect my enjoyment of the song. The guitar solo is really nice and the tone is well-crafted. I think the drums could have used a little work in terms of leveling and EQ, but on the whole, the sound design is fantastic and the arrangement is very pleasing.