zircon

Thank you to everybody that voted. It is very much appreciated, and while no one from OCR won this month, we did very well nonetheless. Let's all hope we get even more great talent into the quarter/semi/finals THIS month! Remember, if you're an artist, you can submit for free. You have nothing to lose by doing so and everything to gain.

Damn, talk about some stacked teams!

Lori, I do thank you for being a fan and it's touching that your kids enjoy "Breathing You In" and dance around to it. Jill and I used to do that to, as kids. I didn't mean to sound hostile or unappreciative, and if I did, I apologize. I was just sympathizing with you, as I've been in your position (and still am, in many respects!) You may notice in the first post I specifically told people that we (OCR artists) do not want an illegitimate victory. I honestly mean that. I do not want anyone to vote on my music over someone else's if it is legitimately not as good. I do not want anyone to cheat or be dishonest on my behalf, which includes voting down other people. When I am voting in the finals I always evaluate every song pair fairly even if that means voting on a song favorably when it is already #1. If I truly thought most people here were intentionally voting in a dishonest way, I would not post these threads. It was really disappointing to hear the people who liked your song better voting sgx above you for the prize, and I would never condone that (and as you saw by sgx's post above, he doesn't either.) However, I know the OCR community and I've spoken personally to many of the people voting. I have heard enough to have a solid belief that people here are only voting for us because they genuinely love our music, and they do not vote dishonestly, and in fact may vote certain songs higher if they really like those more. Also, this may have gone without saying, so let me say it now: I enjoy your music very much as well! I'm glad Jill discovered you.

Hi Paulie - congrats on getting into the finals and doing well so far. I liked your song quite a bit, actually. I think you might have the wrong idea about OCR though, this isn't really a place to advertise music, per se. No one gets promoted here that hasn't been participating in the community for years, releasing lots of free music and establishing connections with many people. We earn our fans from this site just like everyone else! Now, I want to emphasize something that Jill said on the last page: while I have been making these threads each month, the "active" OCR community (according to our forum software) consists of no more than about 1,000 people. This number, however, includes far more people than those who are reading the forum on a day by day basis. The number further dwindles because not everyone is a fan of us. Obviously, if you don't like my music or sgx's, you're not going to vote in a contest for us! Remember this fact. I posted in March asking people on OCR to sign up and join both my fanclub and Jill's, as OurStage asked us to do. I then emailed everyone on my mailing list, and Jill emailed everyone on hers. Yet even considering this - and our supposedly massive community of 22,000 - SIX people on OurStage had added more fans than us. Wil Deynes actually had more fans than both of us combined! Lori, I really do feel for you. I know how it feels to be in a position where your fanbase isn't as large as you want it. It's really important that you realize though that we really don't have an unfair advantage here. Did you know that over the last four years or so, I have released four albums and posted extensively about each one here? Yet if you combined ALL those album sales over the last four years, it would be less than 1,000 - and MANY of those sales are not from OCR. As hard as it might be to believe, this really isn't an enormous community, and it's very difficult to get even active users to support the original music of artists. This is a site about video game music, after all. Jill and I have had to spend the entire day talking to friends, fans, and family members just like you. We DON'T have massive fanbases. And at the end of the day, none of us are even in the top 10 right now.

For trance pads, I like using really soft, muted sounds. Detuned saws (maybe 2-4 osc) with a lowpass filter set pretty low, a tiny bit of reso, slight chorus, and reverb/delay usually does the trick. Then you want to have them in the middle to upper range so they're audible, but not making anything muddy. Using EQ to roll off the low freqs is also a good idea.

That has happened to me on several different computers. It's really annoying - I think it has to do with polyphony. In the "Misc" tab turn the max poly way down. Also, save your project regularly and try not to open up the FL Soundfont PLayer GUI while your project is playing back. I don't know why the plugin is so unstable, but supposedly it has to do more with the soundfonts than the player.

There's no need for any drama. I've been making an OurStage thread once every month for any and all OCR artists who are participating, like clockwork. People in the community can choose to support these artists by spending a bit of time judging on the site. Besides helping out musicians who need the help, anyone that judges gets to hear a lot of great new music on OurStage itself - I personally have discovered a number of excellent artists through it that I wouldn't have otherwise. Not a bad deal. If you don't like the idea of supporting people like Audix, sgx, myself, Jill, etc. then you don't have to vote or have any involvement. Simple as that. For me, whenever people from the OCR community need help, I do my best to give it to them. Whether it's technical questions about mixing, WIP critiques, legal or business advice, questions about the judging/sub process, or anything else, I don't mind spending a small amount of my time helping people in the community. Voting on OurStage is really no different.

I agree with AnotherSoundscape's sentiment on this. I like the atmosphere and the groove, generally speaking, and the modifications to the source are nice. I do think the drums are the weakest part by far, however. The whole kit just sounds kind of thin, and the kick/snare lack punch. The hihats are far louder than everything else so it sounds unbalanced to me. The drum sequencing is also rather plain, in my opinion, particularly 1:32. This one is right on the border for me, honestly. While I like a lot of the sounds, the drums are very weak, and for such a "smooth" mix I think they should be a lot stronger. Also, the leads tend to get buried. That being said, the arrangement is definitely good, which I think is enough to push this into YES territory. YES

Looks like we are in the finals now - thanks for all the votes everyone. I made it with "Drum and Bossa" - was hoping for "Rainforest Majesty", which was extremely strong all month, and then dropped to #7 in the last 5 mins of the semifinals. Oh well. The finals have a ton of battles, but do what you can - EVERY vote matters, as we saw last month, where Jill came in 2nd at the last minute (coming up from the 20s-30s for most of the day.) Also, not to be a hater, but if sgx comes up against me, since he already won the grand prize, show me some love.

It sounds like Kulaman is driving so he should have a car available.

NOTE: We will be meeting at noon, Saturday at the INFORMATION DESK in the middle of 30th Street Station, where all the Amtrak train times are. It's pretty hard to miss, as it's in the main concourse. In case anyone misses us for any reason, either in Ardmore or the meetup point (30th Street), here are some directions. READ THIS BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT * If you're driving to Ardmore first, and you're going down Cricket Ave from Lancaster, look on your RIGHT. You'll be driving for a short distance, passing a parking lot, a pub, and a carpet cleaner on your right, before you arrive. Look for a two story red brick apartment building with black shutters. To the LEFT of the building is the entrance to our parking lot. It's narrow and will take you all the way behind our building, where you will see the parking lot itself. Don't park on the street! * Once you are parked, go back to Cricket and walk back the way you came up to Lancaster (it's just a straight line.) You'll wind up at an intersection. Go STRAIGHT, passing in between the Primavera Pizza Kitchen on your left and Radioshack on your right. You'll walk straight into the train station, which is little more than a bunch of benches near the tracks. You should be able to find a door to the ticket office; the door faces outwards to the tracks. Get a round trip ticket to 30th Street Station, if you can. If the ticket office is closed, don't worry, you can get a ticket on the train for $5. * Upon arriving at 30th Street Station, IF we are still there, then get to the main concourse, which is down a ramp. If we left for Manayunk, get to the ticket counter and simply buy a round trip ticket there. The clerk should tell you where to go.

Thanks for the votes so far everyone! Looks like Drum & Bossa might not make it, but Rainforest Majesty is going strong, I think.

Awesome. Went on an achievements server and got everything I needed to get all the Medic unlockables - some of them are just unrealistic in normal gameplay.

A heads-up to everyone who is staying overnight on Saturday: Saturday marks the first day of the semifinals on OurStage. These only last Saturday and Sunday, and chances are, both myself and sgx will be in them, and competing for a $5,000 grand prize. We may want to do some group voting for a bit sometime on Saturday, but it might look fishy if many of you don't have accounts and the OS staff all of a sudden see a bunch of registrations from the same IP. So, if you'd like to help (it's simple and fun to judge) you might want to register an account now.

It's the end of the month, and again several OCReMixers have made it into the final rounds at www.OurStage.com. June 30th: Finals begin! OCR artists represent with three tracks: * zircon - Drum and Bossa * sgx - Haven * sgx - But Underneath All That FAQ What is OurStage? A monthly song contest with tens of thousands of entries and dozens of genres. Anyone can enter for free - if you're an artist, you should too! Most of each month is spent determining the top 20 songs in any given category. In the last seven days of the month, only the top songs remain. The quarterfinals contain the top 20 songs of each genre, while the semifinals cut it down to the top 10 in each, to selet the #1 song in each genre. The winners of the semifinals all receive a $100 prize. During the finals (on the last day of the month), the winners from the semifinals go on to compete against each other for a $5,000 grand prize. Artists from OCR have been successful on OurStage so far, due in part to the assistance of people like you! Both Jill Goldin (pixietricks) and sgx have won the grand prize. How can I help? First, register an account at www.OurStage.com - it's free and takes less than a minute. Then, click "Judge" and vote in the music finals, which represents the user-selected best songs from 48 different genre categories. You will be presented with a pair of songs. You cannot choose which songs to vote on, as the system is randomized. Listen to at least 15 seconds of each song, and then select which song you like more, and by how much. When you vote favorably for a song, you encourage that song to move up in the rankings. NOTE: Once you have listened to at least 15 seconds of any given song, you never have to listen to that song again for the remainder of the round (ie. quarterfinals). This will save you time when you want to vote quickly in hundreds of rounds. Anything else I should know? Please do not cheat to support OCR artists. Do not create alt accounts or use any kind of automated scripts. Do not simply vote against popular song ("voting down") to help us. No one in the running for the grand prize wants an illegitimate victory. What's in it for me? OurStage is a great place to discover new music. I personally have found a bunch of great artists there, and a ton of great songs. Plus, you get a sense of satisfaction knowing that you helped starving ReMixers Also, OCR artists who make it to the quarterfinals and beyond typically offer some kind of prize themselves. This month... * I am offering a few CD downloads to a couple random people that sign up and help vote. Remember, there are three rounds where you can potentially vote, and there are a lot of "battles" you can participate in. Make yourself known and post here!

Haha, thanks for the thought, Wes And thanks to everyone else too. Since I just moved into the neighborhood, I don't really have any friends here yet, so reading all these posts brightened my day. Not that it was dark! I spent it with Jill in our new place - we did a lot of walking in the neighborhood (which is very nice, I might add), grabbed a big Subway sandwich for lunch, played Mass Effect on our HDTV, made (and ate) cake, watched the Bourne Supremacy, and will probably play a bit of FF7: Crisis Core on my new PSP, both of which are courtesy of Jill. Fun times. No alcohol as you may have noticed... I really don't care for most drinks outside of water, so I'll probably only have a sip of wine here and there. Never was a big deal to me. :3

175 health is not low... and 225 with the backburner is definitely not low. Basically the patch took existing pyros and, at least, gave them +50 health and autocrit from behind (if you're looking at the backburner.) The air blast for the normal flamethrower is pretty brutal too, speaking as a Demoman

Just so everyone knows, if you're gonna be at the Saturday BBQ, please bring $4 cash. We had to buy a LOT of food so that small contribution will help cover our expenses. :3

Other people have told me CoreTemp doesn't read quads accurately. If CoreTemp was accurate, while playing TF2 I hit 75c on one core. That seems insanely high, no? Anyway... this is still a concern to me. Also, the performance increase I gained was a little less significant than I thought.

I picked up a new Q9450 at Micro Center the other day and had it installed by them. After some BIOS trouble (had to be flashed/reset and updated) they got it in. In their air-conditioned labs, the avg. temperature per core (idle in Windows) was about 50c. Now, at home, with a hotter room (~75f ambient temperature at most) the cores are idling at 58-61c. Under load, a bit higher. This is really worrisome. My old E6600 had idle temps of no more than 40c and 50c under load would worry me. It sometimes idled as low as 30c. My airflow here is slightly worse (vent in left side of the computer is about 4 inches from a wall, but nothing I can do about that) but otherwise the only difference is the processor. I had the tech guy use arctic silver coolant and my Zalman Icetank heatsink/cooler. Should I be concerned? I've read that Q9450s are supposed to be quite a bit cooler than this. EDIT: Worth noting, these temperatures were reported with the "CoreTemp" utility. "Real Temp 2.60", which I just downloaded, is reporting current temps of 49-52, which is a fairly big difference, but I don't know which one is more accurate.

I can't wait for HD Remix, but I don't feel like spending money on another game just to access the beta...

Nah, you don't need to bring anything (except money.) If you're driving, you'd need to drive to our apartment in Ardmore, and then take the train with us to get to the meetup spot (30th St Station.) That's the only way it would be free, anyway. But train would mean less to worry about.

Desktops are highly impractical for a number of reasons... laptops are a bit better, but still have a host of problems. Unlike hardware synths/workstations, computers can crash, lag, and freeze. They generally have higher latency and are far less durable. Not to mention they rarely play nicely with other audio gear in terms of connectors - you need adapters unless you have an external interface, which just adds even more bulk to the setup.

Hey guys, we're sitting here in our new apartment surrounded by boxes of Origins - Jill just got the new shipment today. This means the album is now back in stock and your orders will be fulfilled quickly. They look virtually identical to the first run, and the shrink wrap is a bit better looking, so don't worry if you missed out on getting a first-printing copy Also, Jill is probably too shy to mention it, but there's some exciting news that I'm proud to announce on her behalf. She has been working with a radio promoter for the last few weeks to spread awareness of the album, something that is normally quite difficult for indie artists without label backing. As luck would have it, the radio promoter is also a label owner with ties to a major New Age distributor, Music Design, and that distributor is bringing Jill into their catalog! This means that Origins will be appearing in brick & mortar stores across the country, provided they stock New Age music, as well as Amazon.com. Needless to say, we're both very excited for this development, and both the radio promoter and the distributor have a lot of faith in Jill's music.

Yes, I do (also, reading it again)