Jorito

Hm, you're not doing anything wrong, from what I can make out. I am not familiar with that particular mixer, but since it's a USB one it might have software you need to install and run? The only other thing I can think of is that maybe you forgot to turn up the volume knobs on the mixer? Normally, each (non-rca) input has its own volume knob and probably also EQ.

Yeah, 't was a good excuse to finish this track I started 3 years ago. Glad I did, and I think I'll add some polishing to it later. Too bad you didn't finish it, I liked what I heard. Hope you get around to finish it it; I'll collab ya if that's what's needed to make it happen

I uploaded a thing. A thing I will probably get back to after compo, but I ran out of time

I am pretty sure I will have something by the deadline, things are coming along nicely and I feel inspired

Tempted... not sure if I have the time, but it would be a good excuse to finish off some more stuff

I've worked with @JohnStacy on some tracks for Secret of Mana before. For one he provided cornet, for the other a full orchestral brass section (sans tuba). His primary instrument is (jazz) French horn, so he'd probably be great on this. I can recommend him, and can even try to point him here

Don't worry, I am used to not everybody liking remixes with lyrics and vocals in them, but that won't stop me from making others if I feel like it. Thanks for the constructive criticism and tone (also from others in this thread), it's better than the sometimes vocal complainers that ask me how I dare ruin cult classics with vocals. See you in the next vocal track

No worries, we’re good. We’ll have your track on the album soon enough

I plan on finishing my track before the end of this year too, so that's one more down

I can only second that approach. I love arranging, and when I'm in that mode, I really want to focus on notes and general flow rather than specifics of sound. Sure, I have a general idea in my head with what kind of sounds I would use - which is handy, because it helps you figure out what to write - but during this phase my instruments are rather ballpark sounds that I will adjust or replace later, and I even don't bother with EQ or compression or other such things. That's all for later, first order of business is getting the notes down. The chiptune trick is great, because it helps you focus. If all you have is 3-6 instrument channels and perhaps a noise/drum channel, you will loose a lot of distraction from all the production gizmos - especially if you have to stick to a limited number of preset sounds.

Yes, a florist. Singing about shrubbery.

@halc: It would have definitely helped if we would have had the actual track and could have actually contacted you. It's always sad to have to drop a track for reasons such as that; I'd rather have more good music on the album than less. Hit me up with your track, and we can take things from there!

I appreciate the transparency and the timely response from the opening post. Goes a long way to gain trust (not that I needed that). While the Youtube ads increasingly annoy me (especially those in the middle of a video, yuck), I still have no issue with monetising the videos if it ensures a continued existence of the community.

Personally, I already went ahead and finished and released (and submitted) my remix I originally did for the album, but it would be good to have a full fledged FF8 album. After I take a break from 2 album gigs, I might be able to help out in some shape or form, but it's also a pretty big and ambitious project that could probably use 1-2 co-directors alongside somebody who takes the lead.

Good to see I'm not the only late entry

In the past 2 weeks, we've been wrapping up work on the album, received some track updates, finished the artwork and other bits and bobs. In short: we just sent over the final package to OCR staff so they can do their thing and bring it to y'all. To celebrate, I updated the first post of this thread with the album art as a teaser for the good things to come. Only a bit more time before we can finally share the good stuff with you all

TL;DR: Just keep at it, you're doing great, and if you keep doing what you do and keep that mindset, you'll get there I finally managed to get a listen in on your latest version, and my biggest feedback point would be on the arrangement side of things. That Kefka melody is pretty cool but also pretty short. That means we're hearing it a _lot_ and half way I kinda lost interest. I think half way would be a great place to play around with the melody, maybe chop or glitch it up, mess with the timing, add some harmonies, or maybe go all out and add a wacky synth solo inspired by the main melody. Anyway, even as-is, it's pretty enjoyable, but I'm sure you can step things up a notch if you feel like working on it again. Don't hesitate to hit me up if you've got questions.

Pretty much. Just visit and have a nice li'l chat. You can also enjoy the late night ravings of bustatunez and snplmn every once in a while

Listening back to the remix now, I have to agree with the comments about the mixing. I did this track way back in 2014/2015, and it's quite cool to listen back and hear the mistakes/not so great choices you made back then and how you've improved over time (and how much there's still to improve) .

Interesting that you should say that. I've never met any OCR people face-to-face nor did I visit any live events. All my involvement has been remote, mostly through Discord (go join!) and the forums. Didn't really make me feel like an outsider with an outsider perspective. Just being active in the community made me feel involved and informed. $0.02 (yay, more cash!)

I did some casual polling of some (a very small set of) non-musician people that do like their video games, and the key take aways were 'they always have awesome remixes', 'that is where I learned remixing videogame music was a thing' and in general that it's cool and people tend be followers for a long time already. So I wouldn't say it's dying or becoming irrelevant. Sure, VGM remixes and covers are a big thing these days, and with all these other parties doing VGM stuff nowadays, it makes sense that OCR stands out less than it used to do way back when OCR was one of the few communities doing such things. I think there's enough space in the VGM world for all these initiatives, all with their different angles and interpretations. I never dabbled in DoD because I am too lazy to learn to actually play an instrument, but I am doing a remix for a non-OCR album this month and I am also looking into Materia Collective. For the latter, there might not be an explicit bar, but I do know there's a proposal + approval process there too, and judging by the albums released they also have a QA process for stuff that makes it on the albums. Anyway, maybe it's time to accept that OCR is doing its own thing and is what it wants to be, not what you think it should be. Sure, constructive criticism is good and should be welcomed. Eagerly awaiting, almost pleading for DJP for a veto and a course correction of this perceived Titanic seems pretty fatalistic to me though. Chill, dude. It's good that you care so much, but you might wanna reconsider your tone and approach if you really want to have a solid constructive discussion.

I have to agree with ACO here; usually big dreams start small and he brings up some other good points. You might want to reconsider your approach here. Also not sure when/if/how law should be involved here, of course the law firm has their own agenda (and bank account) and personally I would just try to inquire how, for example, OCR or Materia Collective did those albums and maybe release it there in stead of going full Indie on it. Just $0.02.

Quoted because I am rather intruigued by this idea. I would definitely be game for this, and I am pretty confident I could do it at a postable level. Of course, the sounds and tools in the DAW would really determine the style and the approach *), but at the end of the day it's all about being creative and come up with something that sounds good - to my ears, to listeners, and to the judges panel. That 'sounds good' part is a skill that needs to develop and grow over time, I've learned, and it takes work and effort. *) I have 2 DAWS I could use. The first one is my main workhorse, Logic Pro. Logic comes with a very extensive set of sounds, from (good quality) synths (Alchemy, to name one) to okay-ish instrument samples and good drums. The other one is Bitwig, which is more lean on supplied instruments and effects and has maybe 1-2 synths I'd call useable and a pretty limited set of sounds. While I might do a pop or rock track in Logic, the samples aren't good enough (IMO) for something orchestral, at least not as the main attraction. In Bitwig it's a whole different story. Because of the sounds and functionality available, I would probably opt for an electronic track, something EDM or synthwave, because that's the kind of music I think I can make with what's on offer and still get it to sound decent. Anything else with just stock would be a big big big challenge.

Ultimately it's all a personal choice. For me, I decided to stick with Ozone for my mastering bus, and it's essentially all I use and have been using for the past years. I find it to be a complete and compelling suite of mastering tools that even work with my mediocre mastering skills. The presets are also useful and inspiring to me. So for me it'd be worth it. For you? YMMV. You can use other tools for this, like the bundled stock plugins, and they will also get the job done, but the convenience, the workflow and the quality of the bundled stuff made it an easy choice - for me. I would suggest to try a demo version and see if/how it clicks with you. Either you figure out you like it a lot and it might be worth your while, or you go 'meh' and move on.

I wouldn't mind to keep my link included for rejected links. Not at all! It's just that I didn't know/forgot to add it explicitly to every submit I do. I would love to have a setting in my profile somewhere (a checkbox that says "YES, leave links to my tracks in my submits even if they get rejected" so I can set it once and it can be used from there on. I am totally cool with sharing these links, heck, for every track I do, I usually have like 10 different work-in-progress versions before declaring it done, and I share those in-between versions sometimes for feedback and if it's interesting I wouldn't even mind sharing those to a bigger group. On the sample quality thing: a few weeks back I did a pure chiptune track with samples from SAC PC (so lo-fi by design) and submitted that to the panel. Not sure how it will fare in the panel and it might be too far out for OCR, we'll see. But earlier this week I also stumbled upon a video on Youtube with pure Amiga MOD file music and thought it'd be interested to give that kind of lo-fi sound (just 4-8 sample channels, about 500kB of samples) a shot too. In both cases I'm pretty sure the intent will come across well without anyone having to read any added notes