Supercoolmike

Ahem... I am totally not being held against my will...
In seriousness, I want to say I'm overwhelmed by the immediate reaction to Trism's reopening post. I'm humbled for the project by the positivity displayed despite the way I left everything.
I reckon you folks deserve an explanation about what's been happening since April 2017. The thing is, when I put the project on hiatus simply for a bit of temporary breathing space, I didn't know it was the beginning of nearly 2 years of complication for me and my family, including borderline poverty, eviction, mental health and death. It's been a rough ride and I'm telling y'all this not for sympathy but for the explanation I feel you deserve. I'm sorry about the way I left it, and the way I stopped providing updates too. Life took centre stage and, well, yeah, whatever... Apologies.
Things are still complicated for me at the moment (though it's easing), and I but I can think of nobody better to take the mantle of this project than @Trism and I'm excited to see how things finish up. I might have left the project for a while, but it never left me.  
Thanks once more everybody for your involvement in the project, continued support and belief in Trism. If anybody can get this project flying again, he can. Hopefully you guysngals won't mind me popping 'round every now and again to see how things are getting on.
 
Odai. 
 

can't wait to listen to everyones tracks, Now I'm all anxious for this release during december. lol

GUESS WHAT Y'ALL?!

ALL tracks are now finished and turned in. Sure we got two remaining tracks to master, but the bigger point here is this: We have a FULL and COMPLETE 36 track, 3-disc album finished on our hands! Now is the time to finish up any last minute admin stuff, designing the website, working with OCR on trailer creation and setting a release date around Christmas of this year to hopefully still land within the 15th anniversary year of Skies of Arcadia: Legends release! To top it off, we are working with DJPretzel himself to see if we can get a limited run print of physical copies of this album! Every contributor will get about 2 copies (One for themselves and one to share), while the rest will be handed out as promos and prizes/gifts free at Magfest and other events that OCRemix attends. There won't be any other way to snag these puppies if you weren't contributing, so another reason to come out to these fantastic events and meet OCR staff in person in hopes that you might get one of these beauties. More words to follow on that part. I'm just jazzed that it's all done and now it is time to clean up and get this out there to you!

Now without further adieu, The final track list which also has been updated on the first post of this thread:
 
Disc 1 - Defend the Home Isle

01 - Main Theme (Title Screen) - Claimed by pu_freak - Genre: Orchestral/Piano - 'The Voyage Begins'
02 - Vyse's Theme - Claimed by SBeast - Genre: Metal - 'Legend in the Making'
03 - Blue Pirate's Theme/Ship (combo track) - Clamed by OA - Genre: Rock/Dance - 'Blue Skies, Pirate Surprise'
04 - Air Pirate Island - Claimed by Ganae - Genre: Orchestral - 'Rogue Sanctuary'
05 - Air Pirate Secret Base - Claimed by Silent Ice - Genre: Dubstep Reggae - 'Secret Bass'
06 - Dungeon Cave - Claimed by Orphanin - Genre: Orchestral - 'Into the Deep Dark'
07 - Battle 1/Battle 2 (combo track) - Claimed by fxsnowy - Genre: Dubstep - 'Arcadian Assault'
08 - Victory in Battle / Bombardment Victory (combo track) - Claimed by GlacialSpoon - Genre: Techno - 'Victory! Glory! Profit?'
09 - Sailor Town - Claimed by Bluelighter - Genre: Marching Band - 'A Sailor's Respite.'
10 - Fina's Theme - Claimed by Moseph - Piano w/Accompaniment - 'Light of the Silver Moon'
11 - Drachma's Theme - Claimed by Tsori-Deedubs - Genre: K-Indie Folk - 'Better Days'
12 - Little Jack - Claimed by Chadlee/Rotten Eggplant/John Stacy - Genre: Jazz - 'On Wings of Feathers'
Estimated Run time: 46 mins
Disc 2 - To the Horizon

01 - Kingdom of Nasrad - Claimed by shredd - Genre: Metal - 'Blasting the Sand Demon'
02 - Bombardment 1 / Bombardment 2 (combo track) - Claimed by Deedubs - Genre: Trance - 'From the Perilous Skies to Your Heart'
03 - Entique's Theme - Claimed by Deedubs - Genre: Waltz - 'Valse pour un Prince Rebelle'
04 - Kingdom of Ixa'taki - Claimed by Garpocalypse - Genre: Folk - 'Valhorteka'
05 - Theme of Reflection - Claimed by Yoshiblade - Genre: Trance/Dance - 'Inner Reflections'
06 - Remote Town - Claimed by RebeccaETripp - Genre: Celtic - 'Rusted Hopes'
07 - Dark Rift Theme - Claimed by ZykO - Genre: Creepy Ambient - 'The Darkness is Already Here'
08 - Yafutoma Dawn / Eastern Air Pirates (combo track) - Claimed by Jorito/Aster/Furilas/Lauren the Flute - Genre: Spaghetti Wester - 'Il buono, il brutto e il pirata dell'aria'
09 - Theme of Loneliness - Claimed by Sentient Pulse - Genre: Chill EDM - 'Shrouded Void'
10 - Valua City - Claimed by Kylok - Genre: Folk Rock - 'Undervalued'
11 - Gilder's Theme - Claimed by Jason Covenant - Genre: Experimental - 'Coding Angel'
12 - Delphinus - Claimed by Jorito + Others - Genre: Orchestal - 'To the Horizon'
Estimated Run time: 64 mins
Disc 3 - I Am Legend

01 - Military Facility Dungeon - Claimed by djpretzel - Genre: Funk Rock - 'The MFD'
02 - Ramirez's Theme - Claimed by Guifrog - Genre: Orchestral Dubstep - 'Brain Sound Tilt'
03 - Gigas Theme - Claimed by PrototypeRaptor - Genre: Electronic - 'Black Moon'
04 - Nervous Crisis 1/ Nervous Crisis 2 (combo track) - Claimed by GlacialSpoon - Genre: Dubstep - 'Nervousness is Just Bravery Disguised'
05 - Boss Battle - Claimed by Tuberz McGee - Genre: Progressive Metal - 'Life in a Vyse'
06 - Great Silver Temple - Claimed by Sam Dillard - Genre: Orchestral - 'Shining Silver'
07 - Armada/Armada Battle (combo track) - Claimed by Deedubs - Genre: Orchestal/Electronica - 'God's Ambition'
08 - Last Dungeon - Claimed by Supercookmile/Deedubs - Genre: Synthezied Loneliness - 'In Solitude, I Scream'
09 - Zealous - Claimed by Glejs - Genre: Electronica Trance - 'Unknown Menace'
10 - Last Battle - Claimed by Deedubs/Sixto Sounds - Genre: Orchestral Metal - 'Silver Nightmare'
11 - Legendary Sinking Continent - Claimed by Scott Buckley - Genre: Orchestral - 'The End of a Dream'
12 - Credits - Claimed by Juke - Genre: Orchestral - 'Hearth and Home'
Estimated Run time: 58 mins

Total Run time: 168 mins - or - 2 hours and 48 mins

all right, I submitted my wip since you guys still wanted it. It's not much but it was the only idea that went as far as it did. sorry for the letdown.

all right, I submitted my wip since you guys still wanted it. It's not much but it was the only idea that went as far as it did. sorry for the letdown.

all right, I submitted my wip since you guys still wanted it. It's not much but it was the only idea that went as far as it did. sorry for the letdown.

all right, I submitted my wip since you guys still wanted it. It's not much but it was the only idea that went as far as it did. sorry for the letdown.

all right, I submitted my wip since you guys still wanted it. It's not much but it was the only idea that went as far as it did. sorry for the letdown.

sorry for the disappointment, but I think i gotta forfeit on this one. Came into this hoping I would get out of my funk and I just never did, I restarted so many times and I just didn't like any of my attempts... I have just been creatively shocked for this year so far, even just attempting to make some original tracks never goes longer than a minute. Think I just lost all my motivation or something, honestly don't know what to do anymore to get fully back on the creative saddle..

sorry for the disappointment, but I think i gotta forfeit on this one. Came into this hoping I would get out of my funk and I just never did, I restarted so many times and I just didn't like any of my attempts... I have just been creatively shocked for this year so far, even just attempting to make some original tracks never goes longer than a minute. Think I just lost all my motivation or something, honestly don't know what to do anymore to get fully back on the creative saddle..

sorry for the disappointment, but I think i gotta forfeit on this one. Came into this hoping I would get out of my funk and I just never did, I restarted so many times and I just didn't like any of my attempts... I have just been creatively shocked for this year so far, even just attempting to make some original tracks never goes longer than a minute. Think I just lost all my motivation or something, honestly don't know what to do anymore to get fully back on the creative saddle..

came up with some decent ideas but they're for there individual tracks, trying to combine them and not sound forced. I'm pretty sure this is common for everyone tho, the grind continues.

haven't done anything music related in a cool minute. seriously need to get back to it, maybe this will help get me out of my funk.
1 - Shademan (mm7)
2 - Astroman (mm8)
3 - Frostman (mm8)

haven't done anything music related in a cool minute. seriously need to get back to it, maybe this will help get me out of my funk.
1 - Shademan (mm7)
2 - Astroman (mm8)
3 - Frostman (mm8)

I probably have a dumb question, but How do you guys stay in track in a project regardless if it has deadlines or whether if you're even getting paid for it? I seem to always find myself totally motivated to always start a new project (especially if other people are involved) but than just start struggling to just get somewhere competently, let alone actually finishing it. Where do you guys find the motivation to keep the project going, to keep days,weeks,months, and possibly years of work from going under. Or having to come to the ultimate decision of just dropping the project all together due to very little progress or little to no more motivation to keep it alive.
     I ask all of this because I feel like this is just all I do now. No matter how motivated I am at the beginning, all I seem to do is just repeat this never ending cycle of just never completing a project. So now this has been happening for almost a decade for me and now I can't shake off this feeling if whether or not I'm even competent or capable enough to take on (or to be apart of) a real project where the responsibilities were to be pointing in my directions. 
     I guess an easy example from me currently is that I always wanted to work on my own Solo song album but treat it like it's going to be made for an old school JRPG, So of course I was excited to jump on it. fast forward a year or 2 later and I have 23 tracks so far, but only 5-6 of them even come close to a substantial wip AND are longer than a minute... Along with starting another 2-3 separate projects... and this is just recent shit, and just audio projects. 

At the end of the day, remember there's an immense reward and kick in actually finishing something. Doesn't matter if it's music or something else. Starting something new is easy, seeing it through to the end is a different thing. Stick with it, see it through. It's worth it, and it gets easier the more you do it. The reward of actually finishing a piece of music, and getting it out there is a very powerful motive.
Meteo has it right, there's always this goal that you can chase and aim for. Doesn't matter if it's the first track you upload to your own channel, getting your first track posted here on OCR, doing something cool with an album. Having a goal is a big help, and one of my things I already have in mind before I start. I am not one for aimless noodling, I guess  
For me, I usually have a broad outline of what I think I want to do when creating a piece of music before I fire up the DAW. Part of that outline is a genre/style and some vague hints about instrumentation I might want to try. That outline also has a checkbox on it to add an intro and an ending. It keeps things focused, but it's also not set in stone so if inspiration strikes or something interesting happens along the way, I make changes. But I do keep the outline in mind I created (and write down in some cases) before I start.
A good trick is also to have a deadline, either an external one or an internal one. Joining a compo here will help you do that, or an album project with a steep deadline (I happen to be collab'ing on a Chrono Cross remix that we started on Monday and will probably be finished somewhere in the next few days).
Having said that, having multiple projects going on is not a bad thing. Apart from the aforementioned Chrono Cross track I have 2 other tracks in progress right now, and that's pretty common. That way, I can shift easily to one of the other tracks in case I get stuck in one, am waiting for recordings to come in or are just not inspired right now to keep working on the same track again. But it's crucial that you want to finish what you start, and the only way to do that is... well, to just do it. It's not always easy, but worth it, and it gets easier.

Don't be too down on yourself, Supercoolmike. There's nothing wrong with hopping from song to song if you have a bunch of ideas. But at some point, you need to focus. It's fine to play with melodies or a set of harmonies to get a feel for them and see if they could go somewhere, seeing as that's where so many song's start. And of course, getting ideas down so you don't forget them is important. But you need to return to those ideas for them to get anywhere. Don't just focus on the part you thought was cool sounding, because that's only one piece of the puzzle.
As someone who draws, writes and composes, I can tell you first hand that in any art, there's going to be a time when you have to work on something that's going to feel tedious; that's not the part you really want to work on. Maybe it's a scene that has nothing to do with a plot point that you can't want to get to, maybe it's redrawing a minor character's facial design for the 20 time, maybe it's EQing a new set of instruments that'll be used for one small part of a song... it's always going to be something. The thing is, you have to prime the canvas before you can use it. You have to mix the paints before you get the color you're after. And that kind of "feels like I'm not making progress" work will always be there at some point to varying degrees. But if you don't get past that hump, nothing you do will ever reach the proverbial finish line.
It's great to have those bursts of inspiration and get a bit down, but the inspiration is just the "Wow! This sounds cool!" part. It's the character reveal behind who killed who, or the physical trait that makes your character look interesting. The real work comes afterward, when you have to build the song sections that come before, are around, and that come after the "cool" part. You need to build the small plot points that lead up to the murder and chose the settings/quirks/background that would cause your character to have that physical trait. You can't avoid it. But here's the thing. As you work on your song/drawing/story, you'll find more bits of inspiration. You'll compose that new musical hook, create that bit of backstory, or design a facial trait that pulls you back into what got started with the initial burst of inspiration. But that can't happen unless you go back to what you did.
It sounds like you've got the bits and pieces in place; the seeds of songs, so to speak. Now you need to pick one and listen to that bit repeatedly to get it into your head and start your mind focusing on it. Pick it apart, shuffle parts of it around, play with the harmonies and melody... hone in and see where your thoughts take it. Even if what you're doing winds up not working after two hours, you're still staying focused and trying to get it to work. You're still trying to pull more ideas out of what you've already done to make progress.
So my advice pretty much mirrors what Meteo said. Sit down, pick a track and focus on it. I had musical and story ideas sitting around on paper, tape and PC quite literally for decades that just went nowhere because I didn't put in the effort to push them past that "this sounds cool" phase. So don't be like me and sit on ideas for years. Get your ass in gear, hunker down and push through the workload that's ahead of you with your music. Don't let it become a "what if...", because that shit will haunt you.

It's a common progression for creative people, even experienced ones.
You can read up on a what a lot of other people have done to break through the point of losing excitement to do a track and actually do the work of finishing it, but I think in general what you really need to be told is just to FINISH YOUR DAMN TRACKS. No tricks, no shortcuts, just sit down and get ready to go through the bog of working on it regardless if you feel interested or excited by it or not. I say there's not much good a lot of more specific advice can do for you because it's all as unique a process to you as your music style is. You won't know what the best way for you to get "motivation" to get through it until you do it. And do it again. And again. And again.
To be serious about doing an art means to employ a dedication to its discipline - in other words, get ready to sacrifice lots of time that won't be fun. Everyone here that ever got successful at music had to go through the same ritual and just accept it as part of what we do. I get the feeling what you're running into is just losing that OMG THIS IS AWESOME feeling we all get when starting something and getting the idea this could really be something and then just quitting it when that "high" runs out. Without experience in getting through the other end of it and going through the meticulous stages of making sure every single little fucking thing in it is perfect, you won't get through that barrier.
The encouragement part is, once you start getting experience in doing it, it can really build up quick. In fact, I personally make it a point in the soundtracks and albums and stuff I do now is to start a bunch at a time, work on them until I feel like I've got them at a good place, and then go back and do the "finishing" part for all of them in a "stage". I don't get obsessed with making sure I focus and start and finish one track at a time anymore because I've personally found that I work better in "batch bursts", what I call them. I'll get a bunch of tracks up to "nearly finished" stages, then one day I'll just burst right through and do the finishing stages for all of them in a single day because where my mind and energy at is "finish the job". No more "come up with something that could be something" or "ok, start getting some next parts going for this shit", it's "ok, the composition and arrangement is done, now to finish them off".
So, in actuality, you accidentally painted yourself into a good corner where now you can work on building a shitload of "finishing" experience. Start with one track, take as much time to make it perfect as you need, finish it and release it. Then do the same for another. Then the same for another. Then do 3 with a made up weekly schedule for each. Release. Then another 3. Release. And so on.
I tell you straight, few things in the world are as satisfying as finishing a song after you went through the not-fun part of doing it. It's like a non-gross orgasm that lasts all day. Then you realize you're quickly getting better and faster at doing it because the satisfaction of finishing a song is also a major EXP. POINTS burst. It really feels like you level up the first time you get an Ocremix posted, then your first whole album finished, then your first album published by a small label and so on. And those experience points don't go away as quickly as some other achievements.
So there's your motivation - sit your ass back in that chair and get to work and you'll get day-long orgasms you don't necessarily have to wipe off, and then find out you secretly jumped from Level 1 to Level 8 in just a few days and secretly picked up some "abilities" along the way, like being able to hear missing notes, missing instruments, wrong instruments and whole wrong sections just by listening to your own WIP a few times.
You'll be surprised how accurate I am here.

it is true that it's entirely based on opinion on what is considered to be the victor, but that's what I like about MnP honestly. You're not supposed to worry about changing things up (that's what PRC is for), it's about who can portray the same emotion better whether it's within there own style or not. I can understand if people think its bland to just follow the original track and midi but that's what this compo is.
Personally, I use MnP as the testing grounds to either create original sounds or combine multiple layers of sounds ( that I don't normally use) to form them as one. For example in the first 30 seconds of my piece, Only 2 instruments are playing in the midi but I'm actually using 4 instruments  (not including effects). If I'm not doing this method mentioned earlier than I'm practicing to play this live on my midi piano or by simply training my ear to remake the song and try to only use the midi file as a fail safe. if I'm just getting a lot of notes wrong ( which is more often than not) then I'll just bite the bullet and use the midi.
I feel like the whole point of this compo is to find better ways to improve yourself without the need of sweating things out or the need to be a try hard, At least that's how I see it. Like its not that big of a deal if you win or lose or even if you felt like you got robbed, I don't see things that way. I only see what needs or should've been improved on if such situations were to occur.
 

it is true that it's entirely based on opinion on what is considered to be the victor, but that's what I like about MnP honestly. You're not supposed to worry about changing things up (that's what PRC is for), it's about who can portray the same emotion better whether it's within there own style or not. I can understand if people think its bland to just follow the original track and midi but that's what this compo is.
Personally, I use MnP as the testing grounds to either create original sounds or combine multiple layers of sounds ( that I don't normally use) to form them as one. For example in the first 30 seconds of my piece, Only 2 instruments are playing in the midi but I'm actually using 4 instruments  (not including effects). If I'm not doing this method mentioned earlier than I'm practicing to play this live on my midi piano or by simply training my ear to remake the song and try to only use the midi file as a fail safe. if I'm just getting a lot of notes wrong ( which is more often than not) then I'll just bite the bullet and use the midi.
I feel like the whole point of this compo is to find better ways to improve yourself without the need of sweating things out or the need to be a try hard, At least that's how I see it. Like its not that big of a deal if you win or lose or even if you felt like you got robbed, I don't see things that way. I only see what needs or should've been improved on if such situations were to occur.
 

uploaded with just 10 mins to spare, Totally wasn't paying attention to the deadline so that's on me.  Went for another style but with my manegment skills, I was only able able to upload the instrumental version. Can't tell if this is a blessing or a curse cuz I was planning to sing in it... so ya, one hell of a way to get out of your comfort zone. lol. 
I'll just have to finish it later. The lyrics were about halfway done but I sound terrible, but I don't even know how terrible I am cuz I never sang before. so I'm debating if I should be serious about it or just be dumb and make up voices. lol

uploaded with just 10 mins to spare, Totally wasn't paying attention to the deadline so that's on me.  Went for another style but with my manegment skills, I was only able able to upload the instrumental version. Can't tell if this is a blessing or a curse cuz I was planning to sing in it... so ya, one hell of a way to get out of your comfort zone. lol. 
I'll just have to finish it later. The lyrics were about halfway done but I sound terrible, but I don't even know how terrible I am cuz I never sang before. so I'm debating if I should be serious about it or just be dumb and make up voices. lol

back in Jan 17 2015, for prc season 11. I kind of did that but placed it all on one youtube vid instead of an album. I was attempting to do it again for season 12 but some stuff happened here and there and I basically dropped the ball pretty badly. I don't know If I'll even attempt to make a season 13 vid because I really don't like saying I'll get something done just for me to not finish it; whether the project is small or large. I mean I wouldn't mind helping out in the end, I just don't like the feeling of betraying someone that has giving me the opportunity to be apart of "said" project.
 
- I've always felt PRC and MNP were brothers in arms since they're both being about 2 week long compos. It's probably still the best place for newcomers or beginners to show up. The monthly compos that does show up here usually last more than a month also while bringing plenty of people to its roster, but also has its fair issues of dropouts. Now the albums that gets formed here are basically the yearly compos but also with higher standards.
So in short, I kind of view these time based compos as the difficulty meter:
Biweekly = Easy <> Monthly = Medium <> Yearly(Albums) = Hard
I'm NOT saying the people that go to these compos (and/or stay) are without or lacking experience in any way. This is just my view of the compos that are based on time and encourages everyone to enter no matter how experienced the person is.
 
- I honestly like How the winners can't choose songs that are already in OCR, It helps bring new life to possible games and tracks that never got the love. I also liked it when it was a specific source because it was always super interesting on the many different possibilities and renditions people have made mixing in with there only style. Using some sources from the request forums is a pretty cool idea, could have the potential of bringing in more people. 
This is just my thoughts of the matter and hope all is well for the future of PRC.  

back in Jan 17 2015, for prc season 11. I kind of did that but placed it all on one youtube vid instead of an album. I was attempting to do it again for season 12 but some stuff happened here and there and I basically dropped the ball pretty badly. I don't know If I'll even attempt to make a season 13 vid because I really don't like saying I'll get something done just for me to not finish it; whether the project is small or large. I mean I wouldn't mind helping out in the end, I just don't like the feeling of betraying someone that has giving me the opportunity to be apart of "said" project.
 
- I've always felt PRC and MNP were brothers in arms since they're both being about 2 week long compos. It's probably still the best place for newcomers or beginners to show up. The monthly compos that does show up here usually last more than a month also while bringing plenty of people to its roster, but also has its fair issues of dropouts. Now the albums that gets formed here are basically the yearly compos but also with higher standards.
So in short, I kind of view these time based compos as the difficulty meter:
Biweekly = Easy <> Monthly = Medium <> Yearly(Albums) = Hard
I'm NOT saying the people that go to these compos (and/or stay) are without or lacking experience in any way. This is just my view of the compos that are based on time and encourages everyone to enter no matter how experienced the person is.
 
- I honestly like How the winners can't choose songs that are already in OCR, It helps bring new life to possible games and tracks that never got the love. I also liked it when it was a specific source because it was always super interesting on the many different possibilities and renditions people have made mixing in with there only style. Using some sources from the request forums is a pretty cool idea, could have the potential of bringing in more people. 
This is just my thoughts of the matter and hope all is well for the future of PRC.  

back in Jan 17 2015, for prc season 11. I kind of did that but placed it all on one youtube vid instead of an album. I was attempting to do it again for season 12 but some stuff happened here and there and I basically dropped the ball pretty badly. I don't know If I'll even attempt to make a season 13 vid because I really don't like saying I'll get something done just for me to not finish it; whether the project is small or large. I mean I wouldn't mind helping out in the end, I just don't like the feeling of betraying someone that has giving me the opportunity to be apart of "said" project.
 
- I've always felt PRC and MNP were brothers in arms since they're both being about 2 week long compos. It's probably still the best place for newcomers or beginners to show up. The monthly compos that does show up here usually last more than a month also while bringing plenty of people to its roster, but also has its fair issues of dropouts. Now the albums that gets formed here are basically the yearly compos but also with higher standards.
So in short, I kind of view these time based compos as the difficulty meter:
Biweekly = Easy <> Monthly = Medium <> Yearly(Albums) = Hard
I'm NOT saying the people that go to these compos (and/or stay) are without or lacking experience in any way. This is just my view of the compos that are based on time and encourages everyone to enter no matter how experienced the person is.
 
- I honestly like How the winners can't choose songs that are already in OCR, It helps bring new life to possible games and tracks that never got the love. I also liked it when it was a specific source because it was always super interesting on the many different possibilities and renditions people have made mixing in with there only style. Using some sources from the request forums is a pretty cool idea, could have the potential of bringing in more people. 
This is just my thoughts of the matter and hope all is well for the future of PRC.