Moguta

Should OC ReMix really be so very concerned about how another website views its own attempts at improvement? A better WIP system would hardly be an attack on VGMix. As you mention, VGMix would still be the only site where all finished remixes are automatically posted. And if somehow the VGMix community is offended, I think that has more to say about their sensitivity than any insensitivity on OCR's part. They've had years to implement their vision. Do they really expect another site to hold itself back because it might look like it's moving ever slightly toward the vision of an inactive website? I, for one, look eagerly forward to any improvements in the OCR WIP process. EDIT: And for clarification, I should also mention I still hold hope for a finished VGMix 3. I was a huge fan of VGMix 2 until the day it was hacked to pieces.

I thought I'd surely already commented on this. Evidently I'm experiencing reverse-amnesia. Rather uncharacteristically for me, one who rarely finds rap songs palatable, I did enjoy this ditty. It's light & fun, and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, certainly so when compared to heavy gangsta. I enjoy the creativity and novel nature of zyko's mix.

I literally laughed out loud reading this, as I had been thinking the exact same thing, although not expressed so eloquently. ^.^ And for that reason, I was kinda dismissive of the song at first. "What, ANOTHER Sewer Surfin' mix?" But I shouldn't have been. This really is a slickly awesome track with unparalleled energy. This will literally rock your socks (and other miscellaneous articles of clothing) right off.

Congratulations OCR on your first live orchestral mix ever! May it be a sign of things to come. And very nice work Mr. Levasseur! This truly is a quality arrangement, quite more reworked than the orchestral covers we tend to hear performed in concert these days.

You know I'll be there! If anyone's willing to put up with me, I'm in need of lodging. ;P And as always, if anyone needs a ride down from anywhere between North Delaware and MAGFest, I have room in mah ride!

Gotta say, I loved it! Folks are right when they say Video Games Live is focused more on being a show, whereas PLAY! is focused more on the music being performed. The playlist was very similar to the previous performance in Prague, which they recorded for a CD/DVD set. I'm definitely looking forward to that release, as I know the Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite is also a performance by Prague's Czech Philharmonic & sounds absolutely spectacular. The song I'm most eager to hear again is the 9 minute Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion medley of Reign of the Septims (intro version), Bloodlust (battle_02), Glory of Cyrodil (atmosphere_01), and Watchman's Ease (town_04). While Jeremy Soule uses an impressive array of orchestral sample libraries, his meant-for-real-orchestra compositions take on a beautiful breath of new life when performed by live musicians. There were at least three different solos (cello, violin, and flute) during the lengthy medley, and the soloists graced their parts with soulfully expressive performances. My disappointment was that Shenmue was not on the set list for this concert. They base their performance off of the first track of the Shenmue Orchestra Version album, which is an impressively beautiful piece. And it's an obscure enough soundtrack that I doubt I'd hear it elsewhere. Here's to hoping they put it back in rotation for future concerts! I noticed that PLAY! seemed to be much more about creating their own new arrangements, and often fits more songs into their medleys. Video Games Live, on the other hand, seems to rely on as many pre-existing orchestral arrangements as it can. So while both concerts may play several of the same games, the music is still a different experience.

So are D-Lux and I gonna see any more fellow OCR-ers tomorrow night? Seems Doug is out, and I have no idea if Xerol's making it.

Dude, don't worry. The DS soundtrack simply has upgraded sounds, and a few songs have slightly different instrumentation. That's all. As far as composition, they're almost exactly the same. (Except, of course, the new Theme of Love pop vocal track.) Really, I don't see how you could possibly base an arrangement off the SNES tunes without also being derivative of the DS versions.

On that note, we should make certain we have enough people before reserving a block of seats. Hope you can be there.

That's much of what I've heard, ifirit. I definitely want to experience how PLAY! compares to Video Games Live... besides the obvious factor that it's a game music concert & I'd go just because of that. I love the showy flashy energy of VGL, but I also would be curious to see how the performance is with a greater emphasis on the craft & beauty of the music itself. Cool, Doug! Hope to see you there. Good idea, binary1230. You'll have to come up and say hi, and I'll look out for anyone with the signature headphoned-gamepad. And don't tell me that no one else is thinking of attending? There may be the VGL show down south, but I know for a fact that there are a large group of OCR-ers here in the DC/Baltimore/Philly area!

(I hope this cross-forum kind of linking is not disallowed.) Being so involved & enthusiastic about music as you are, I just wanted to inform all you OCR-forumgoers that Gamingforce's annual Best Game Song Contest has officially begun! The Best Game Song Contest 2008 is a public tournament-style face-off between 256 different original game soundtrack tunes, done in eight rounds over the course of several weeks. You can download & listen to all the competitors, and then cast your vote to help your favorites climb to the top. Full participation is not required, and indeed, you can listen & then vote as little or as much as you like. Right now, the preliminary round is underway, determining which songs will make it and which will be cut. The full contest should be posted shortly after the preliminaries are complete. Hopefully we may see the same kind of OCR participation that the recently-completed Best Doujin Contest had, in which Harmony's blissful ride through the skies -- Dragon Song -- took 1st place.

Squaresoft Variation was produced just like most of his game soundtracks. Soule uses an extensive library of instrument samples (I can't remember the specific ones he promotes) to render his orchestral compositions. As for the thread's topic, you can usually find some way of getting a message to a composer if you dig around. For American composers, at least.

Or you could try the latest in the series, X-Wing Alliance, which runs quite fine in Windows & also has mod-updated graphics. I've downloaded Beyond the Red Line, but have yet to install it. Eager to try it, though. Along those lines, there is also a mod for Homeworld 2 called Battlestar Galactica: Fleet Commander. While it may not be an in-the-cockpit game, it's still space combat. And lastly, Privateer: Gemini Gold is a free remake of the old classics Privateer & Righteous Fire. It puts you in a universe where you can jump from star system to star system, buy & sell goods, accept missions for shipment, bounty, patrol, or escort, beef up your ship or buy an entirely new one, all while optionally playing out game's storyline.

I just found out about that the PLAY! video game concert will be stopping in Maryland just next month (July 18th). While I've attended a number of Video Games Live performances, I've never been to this sister series of game symphonies and am gonna try to make it, being so close. Is anyone else in the area planning on attending? And I know we already have several meetups planned, but would there be any interest in a OCR gathering focused around this concert? Peace

I am all for this.

I do have the song from the Trance Album itself, but seeing your evaluation of your work, I just wanted to say that it's a piece I've rather enjoyed. It probably has to do with the undersea and whale ambiance, but the song seems groovy enough to this moogle.

I'm actually pretty sure all the music in the game is re-used. What exactly would that mean for naming the track, though? Would you name it a combination of all the levels? I know that Bravo Sector Wave 2 is certainly the first place in the game it is used, being the second level.

This moogle just sent a couple bucks in for a good cause. And as far as the bumper sticker, DJP... A graphic to go along with the words would be nice, not unlike the current headphones-listening-to-gamepad logo.

If you're still having this problem, download the latest version of WinAmp. (Evidently FLAC 1.2.1 accidentally included a new encoding method that should've been kept strictly in the development pipeline, one that breaks compatibility with decoders based on pre-1.2.1 FLAC. WinAmp v5.5 updated FLAC support accordingly.) As far as Audacity, we'll have to wait for them to release a new compatible version.

I always thought it amusing that TO's Raptor mix attributed only the source tune from the game NOT a part of the mix's name. Not to mention, when it was posted, I was rather (pleasantly) surprised to see a Raptor mix. The game does have plenty of remixable material, though. Anyway, what I posted for is that I found the level name for the song in question. It's "Bravo Sector - Wave 2". See this YouTube video at 4:52 for evidence. (Just a warning, it flashes by quickly, you may need to pause to read the mission loading screen it's on.)

Oooo, thank you sir! Hope it wasn't too hard to recover those from your dead drive. These FLACs are much appreciated. Also, I understand how busy you are with the site, DJP. I respect & appreciate your dedicated work on it, and this is not by any means an attempt to diminish that. In all honesty however, a torrent does not seem the best format for distributing lossless remixes, since it will obviously be a very incomplete set of tracks with new additions cropping up sporadically, whereas a torrent is static in content. Also, it seems that Audity wishes to include remixes from other sites in addition to OCR.

Even though loading the FLAC directly into Audacity makes the program freeze on my machine, it loads fine when converted to WAV first. And WinAmp has no problem playing the FLAC I downloaded all the way through. And that's a good base for a site. I know some software coding, but I wish I knew the prominent web application languages.

Apologies for being unclear. To address that, the filesize limit would be instead secondary to the new minimum bitrate (128Kbps in my scenario). So the vast majority of songs would still be limited to less than 6MB. But if a song were longer than 6 minutes, the minimum bitrate of 128Kbps would supersede the filesize limit of 6MB, to preserve audio quality. However, seeing Dave's recent announcements as to how OCR's advertising is not paying for the site, I doubt that any such extension of the filesize limit will be seriously considered at this time. And understandably so, since such a move has the potential to increase the bandwidth expended by the site. Such quality-preservation perhaps would be best undertaken as an unofficial effort on the part of those who care enough about encoding quality to put in their own time and bandwidth. And thus... I would certainly be willing to help out here, in whatever ways I can. And, whoa! A 24bit 48KHz monster! And I think most of us were just expecting simple lossless versions of the same 16bit 44.1KHz audio submitted to the site. Thanks! I'm not sure if I'll keep the entire 72MB behemoth, besides for preservation's sake, but now I can most certainly have your song in high quality (LAME 3.97 -V2 --vbr-new) MP3! ^.^ And speaking of recovering old files, the idea of Pure Lands (Total Darkness) in high bitrate or lossless is like sweet manna. ^^

Happy birthday you married sonuvagun!

Remember, guys, the mastermind behind the Final Fantasy series left Square and has been making his own games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Just in case you were wondering where the creativity (and composer) had gone.