The Nikanoru

ANNOUNCEMENT Well, we're into it now ... I have now submitted the application for this project to become an official OCR release. Or, to become OCR-approved, as I like to say. It will likely take some time for processing and review, so don't expect changes tomorrow; however, I will let everyone know ASAP when I hear back from the Projects Team. Once again, great work everyone - we are (hopefully) one step closer to @Thomas Neil's vision. Let's continue making this an album to remember!

Well, I could have said your woolly Wookies or masterful Minions...

Whoever = me. I still need to build the second WIP with all the additions we made in, uh, early December. I've been maybe a little slow about this... but I will have something together soon. Hopefully this weekend. Once the second WIP is built, I'll PM everyone on the collaboration and we'll make a decision on the next course of action. Well, I sent you and your merry men a formal review for the current WIP on December 29th. Some changes had been proposed, but I've heard nothing since. I suggest you check with @classic_gamer_76 and @Pichu's Dad to see where things are at with this.

One of my favorite tracks from the Xenosaga series: More than a little insane, but I'd like to hear someone remix this. Good luck!

Well, bonus tracks are accepted at the discretion of the director(s) of an album, and even then, only approved for an OCR album by OCR staff. I can't speak to the DKC3 album or the decision made to accept these bonus tracks; only that they must have been approved by the director(s) and OCR to have been featured on the album..

On this one, I'm gonna have to say no. First of all, because you already have a claim on this track in the regular album and you've already made a bonus track of Corneria; second of all because your sound design here is way too close to the WIP you have sent me for your regular claim. If you are looking to start on something else for the album, there are still 4 unclaimed tracks on the current tracklist (including the Boss Roll ) and boss and character themes are still open. Plus, I'm still hoping to get that Andross collaboration going and I need that intro to start things off, if you're still interested in doing that. All that being said, I liked what I heard - your fill-work is really coming along. I love to hear that creativity!

You're not alone, @oldfan. I have a very long history of gaming - got myself hooked on my friend's copies of the first Zelda game, Mario 2, Mario 3, Contra, and the original TMNT. I've been a gamer for 30 years now and as other posts have described, I'm becoming a bit philosophical about it all now. A similar experience brought me to remixes in general. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the Black Mages, but their song Distant Worlds did the very same thing to me. This song helped me realize, in a time of my life when I was very insecure about my gaming, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a great love and appreciation for video games. It's funny how music can not only bring back the images, but also the sounds, the situations, the feelings - this track literally brought the WHOLE experience back for me, which is one of the initial contacts I had with OCR. I'd like to voice my support of Von Nebo's statement and say that these times are good, but nothing will beat those old days trying to figure out how to trash Metal Man with just a P-Buster, an E-Tank (if you didn't lose all your lives trying to get it), and a whole lot of determination. Thank you, OCR, for giving us a place to give these memories a new life through the songs we create - and hopefully we share of little of the joy we had making these memories with the rest of the world through music. "If music be the food of love, play on..." ~William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Great, thanks for the update! @M_Blacki, could you please reach out to Rhino about the mixing on this track?

Okay everyone - it is now just six weeks until the next check-in! (Where has the time gone? 2016 went fast enough...) Once again, this check-in is about progress. Show us that you've done some work on your track; no polish required yet, but hey, if adding polish is your way of advancing the track, fill your boots - we'd love to hear it either way. I've been in contact with a few of you, but it's been pretty quiet lately - I can only assume you're all busy making these tracks spectacular... right? I've mentioned a few times now that I will be applying for OCR-approval very soon. Given that haven't received a new complete (not finished) WIP in the six weeks since I brought this up, I'm no longer confident we can reach the goal of 16 complete (not finished) tracks by the time I plan to apply, so I'm going to apply with whatever we have ready at the time. In the meantime, I'm going to reduce our goal from 16 complete tracks to 12 by next check-in. I'm fairly confident our team is capable of this; remember that by complete (not finished), I mean the arrangement has a beginning, a middle, and an ending - does not have to be a permanent arrangement, no polish is required. Oh, and speaking of which, I'll be making some changes to the top of the thread in the next little while. This whole complete vs. finished thing is obviously confusing people, so I'm going to be reworking what color means what, and I'm also going to be cleaning up the descriptions and condensing what's there so the page is a bit more concise in its description. I've had a few people 'TL;DR' me when I point them to the thread. LOL Here are some WIP updates I have so far: @DS394 gave me an update on Lylat Legacy! Our Sauria remix by @DS394 has an update, now with a rap from @Cole Train! 'The Flash' @Starphoenix has also given me another WIP for the Boss B track, which is now called Laser Light Showdown! @Slimy has given me an update of the Venom track, Surprise! I've posted the updates to the WIP spreadsheet. I love the sound of progress - give them a listen and tell us what you think! If anyone has any questions or concerns, feel free to let me know. I'm trying to make myself available to respond as much as possible, so if you need any support, just ask!

That depends - did you mix your lyrics with @DS394's WIP or do you just have the lyrics audio? I'd prefer to get the lyrics as part of the WIP. If you have the whole WIP, then you can either send to me or post to the review PM. Sure! Just so everyone knows, I'll be asking who was involved and who wants to be credited as what as part of the 'finished WAV' part of the process, as all this will need to be clear for titling the tracks, artists' credits, and who needs to 'sign' consent forms for the final release. ... I'm just waiting for someone to try for 'Remixy McRemixface.'

Impressive as always, @DS394. I really like watching that keyboard bounce around in the video. I FEEL the force every time you knock that thing around - a lasting image of the passion and emotion in your playing style. Awesome! Oh, and love the blooper reel. Also a nice touch.

You can consider this track claimed. Welcome aboard, Katamari!

Awesome! Thanks, @TSori - I'll put you down as a performer! I'm REALLY HOPING someone can pull all these awesome performers we have together for a jazz remix... HINT HINT....

I'd like to hear a bit of commentary about the cut scene in Kohlingen with Rachel, before the bit with Jidoor and Zozo. Not only is this the *only* glimpse into Locke's past, but it is also one of the two times in the entire game where we hear Forever Rachel. It has always seemed significant to me that Rachel was one of the only NPCs in the game to have her own theme. Plus, that crazy old man with the 'preserving herbs' always entertained me.

Hey @Meteo Xavier, I was curious about this too. Do you have that link you were talking about?

I see that @Jorito suggested freesound.org - if you didn't find anything there, I'll have a look around and see what I can find. @DS394 could you please get in touch with Rhino with this MIDI? If you don't have this or are having difficulties accessing it, I'll see if I can do something about this - but let us know what you can find. LOL Can't wait to hear it!

Nothing on my side yet either. You forgot carrier deniability. 'We can't find any record of your package, which of course must mean it never existed to begin with.' Funny how all of us who remain in limbo are Canadian ... I smell a CONSPIRACY!

Really glad to see this accepted, it's an absolutely beautiful track. Great work, Slimy! I completely agree with djpretzel's comment of 'using extended runtime to communicate a very complete and gripping narrative' - very well put.

SHAMELESS double-post, I know, but I wanted to say that I'm finally done with the first set of formal reviews. Looking back, it seems reviewing 20+ tracks in the space of two weeks didn't work out so well with everything life threw at me over the holidays, so we'll probably just review the tracks as we get updates moving forward. Great work everyone, and I hope some of what was said was helpful. Let us know if you need any help!

I was wondering where you went. It's been so quiet on the thread lately! This is probably just confusion on my part. In SF SNES, the Boll Roll plays while the ending cycles through boss stats and the Staff Roll plays during the credits - originally, you claimed the Staff Roll which I thought you were working with @classic_gamer_76 on; the WIP you submitted was for the Boss Roll, so I obviously assumed you were doing both when you dropped the Staff Roll. This was obviously not the case. No problem, I'll take off your claim and WIP. Just to amuse everyone, I did a double-take on this post. Then I remembered that Australia doesn't have reindeer... Good luck on finding a cool day, Siolfor.

Apparently my priorities were not life's priorities this weekend. I'm going to extend myself some extra time (given that I'm in touch with the project director ) so I'll be working on my WIP along with the last of the reviews this week. Thank you for the new Boss B WIP, @Starphoenix! I'll post this momentarily. I hope @Gario is paying attention... still looking forward to some chiptune awesomeness in this track!

This is AWESOME. As someone who is quite fond of puns, I got a real kick out of this. Perhaps some PUNishment is in order?

Wow, just gave this a listen and I'm surprised no one has commented on this. I'm quite impressed with the vocals for this track; very bright and bold, the harmonies are good and work well with the soundscape, and the lyrics are laid out well and seem quite appropriate. The electronic parts could do with better mixing. Some of the brighter sounds are distracting (mostly the end of the 'chorus') and there are lots of places where some of the more subtle parts are being drowned out by this. I also think there could be a bridge put into this somewhere to break up that main progression a bit. I mean, you have lots of variation throughout the song, but on the same parts over and over again. Just a suggestion here. Great work! I hope to hear more of your stuff on here.

One more for your audience - I've also been curious about your analysis, @DS394. When you were speaking to me about this track, you also referred to the 'mixed meter madness,' or the variation in time signature in the different parts of the track. You've already discussed this with me, but since we have this educational thread to discuss, could you please break down how the time signatures are applied in your track? I also would like to know more about the Lydian bII key signature and why you chose to apply this to your track - just cuz I'm curious and unknowledgeable about this. @Gario, if you have some insight on this, I'd be curious to hear your opinion on these points too.

Not a fan of the chorus-y distortion for the guitar in the intro - aside from that, pretty darn awesome. I'm particularly attracted to the timing aspect of the driving riffs linking the different parts of the track - 0:39 to 0:51 and 1:17 to 1:42 are great examples of what I mean - props to you and your 'bois' for nailing this, it makes the transitions just as exciting as the verse parts of the track. I'm also a fan of the bass solo at 2:47 to 3:24; the bats are a nice touch to the sound design. Awesome track!