zircon

The other big issue is hardware compatability. People aren't going to switch to Linux if it means throwing out their MBoxes, their EMU 0404s, their Firepods, their Audiophiles, their Powercores, etc... Linux really needs to have full support of a lot of these major brands.

Otakon is the largest anime convention in the US. This year, it is taking place in Baltimore, Maryland at the Baltimore Convention Center near the harbor. The dates are July 20 through the 22nd (Fri-Sun). OCR will be going there officially to run a panel, and we will also be having meetups throughout the weekend. www.otakon.com PANEL INFO: "OverClocked ReMix: Game Music Evolved" Friday July 20 @ 10 AM to Noon Location: Panel 4, Ballroom 2 REGISTRATION: If you are coming, you should pre-register well in advance. Registration at the con itself is horrendous in terms of wait times. It's $50 per person. Also, don't forget to get your badge EARLY... the lines are really long and you don't want to arrive at 9:30AM Friday only to spend 2 hours waiting for your badge and miss the panel! TRANSPORT: * More info here as we figure out who is driving etc. * For those in the Baltimore area, the lightrail travels right near the convention center. * Greyhound and Amtrak run to locations that are within reach of a lightrail, which will in turn get you to the center. ACCOMODATIONS: No one in the area has offered housing, so you MUST FIND a hotel! Xerol noted that you can get one outside of Baltimore and take the light rail in daily, which will likely be much cheaper than getting one near the harbor. Might add a 30-45 minute commute every day, but it should be worth it. STUFF TO DO: For one thing, the panel itself It will be lots of fun with trivia, giveaways, live performances, exclusive debuts, etc. Otakon itself has lots of stuff to do as well, even for non-anime fans, and the general Baltimore area has a good amount of places to eat and shop. There's always hangin' out in the hotel rooms and playing games if someone wants to bring a Wii or something. Meetup #1 Friday, July 20th - Directly following our panel, which ends at 12:00 noon We will congregate outside of the panel room and make our way to the harbor. If there are any people like Xerol who can only come for an outside meetup, wait at the big fountain (it's a multi-level thing directly to the left of the harbor). We should be there by 12:30 or so, and then we'll all head off to lunch. Meetup #2 Saturday, July 21st - 12:00 noon at the big fountain Same fountain as described above. We'll all hang out and get lunch somewhere in the harborplace. DEFINITE ATTENDEES: zircon pixietricks djpretzel Liontamer Ninja-san Kizyr Dyne + Friend Ferret DJ Sammy G starla The Green Tentacle Jiggles McPuff tgfoo Jose the Bronx Rican Xerol Arrowned AMVTeknoBoy Upthorn Xaleph Sindra sgx PosiBolt

We haven't even started on album art. That's usually among the last steps for a site project. Based on the teaser site that djp did though it will be pretty cool, with some Advent Children influence.

No, the idea of the link SoloGamer posted is that it's the "introduction" thread where people new to the site can post to introduce themselves. That is where this kind of topic gets posted. If you're looking for more tunes to add, I suggest checking out oc.ormgas.com which is 24/7 streaming OC ReMixes. If you hear ones you like, download them later at ocremix.org , here. Enjoy your stay!

The US download link does not work.

WoW already took most elements of what a Diablo MMO would have, such as the skill tree concept. I'm skeptical, I think they are just going to do a Diablo 3 title. An SC MMO is possible but I'm not sure why they would go that route given the groundbreaking success of SC as an RTS.

Not sure about Vista compatability... I know a lot of cards don't though, sadly. PlanetZ.com forums would be the place to ask. I plan on using XP for a long time myself. Zoola; lemme know.

I was initially expecting the worse when I saw the mixer's description - a "reconstruction" of the original track. However, I was pleasantly surprised that it's not just a straight up trance adaptation of the original. It's got a decent level of interpretation surrounding the main source, eg. repeating certain parts of the riff over and drawing it out, playing with the chords, etc. I like the drum changeups and the automation on different parts. That being said, it isn't passable yet for a few reasons: * The production is crowded and muddy. Overcompressed with too much going on in the high-mids to highs. * The way the lead is seqeuenced and arranged is awkward. It also wears a little thin over time. * A lot of the sounds are pretty generic - not a big deal in and of itself, but when they're not executed well that's a problem. * The synths don't really change much over the course of the song. * Too much focus on drums + melody, not quite enough on harmony parts and chords. * Nothing interesting happens in between repeats of the melodies. Where's the sweet breakdown? * You repeat the main Kraid riff way too much. You need to vary it more, solo over the original progression, change the chords entirely, or add more of your own material. * Tempo change at the end is awkward and really doesn't work well.. maybe if it was 1/3 as short. Seems like a lot of criticism, but there was no shortage of promising things about this mix, and I really have heard a lot worse here. Don't be discouraged. I haven't seen you sub before so I'm assuming you're new to this. Just keep at it, listen to more recent dance/trance remixes on the site and get a feel for what our standard is. Participate on our forums too - if not Community, then at least WIP/ReMixing. NO

After a few listens I have to say that I am impressed with the production quality improvement here. The upgrade to better samples certainly helped, but I know a lot of people who do not use these samples well, so clearly you're learning to use what you have well. Mixing is good and the dynamic range is tasteful. We get a LOT of bad orch subs but this is not one of them, at least not in the technical/implementation sense. I disagree with Vig that the orchestration is "sloppy". It seems pretty detailed to me and the dynamics from section to section are impressive. I do however share some concerns about the arrangement. Many rhythms & harmonies are identical and it generally mimics the structure of the original for the first half. That makes me uneasy. However, I really can't say that this is below our standard of interpretation... it clearly does a lot with the theme as the mix develops. I would be happier if more of that creativity was applied to the beginning but as it stands this is a solid mix. I am feeling this much more than the mixer's first mix, I might add. YES

Who's the artist? Also why is this 7:28? This is really sparse, production is pretty lame (muddy, lo-fi, fake/exposed at times) and the handful of decent arrangement ideas are stretched waaaay too thin. This needs to be much more condensed, and your existing arrangement ideas need to be tightened up and polished considerably. I am a little surprised this didn't receive the form letter, it is really very far from our standards... use the WIP and ReMixing forums as well as #ocrwip on IRC to try to gather more feedback before submitting. NO

I like the style, it's reminiscent of Dragonforce and other power metal groups. The original track to me seemed basic - just a chord progression with some simple drums, not even a real melody. I don't think there is any question of the level of interpretation here considering all the additions and rhythmic/harmonic variations. eg. :37 really takes that simple, boring, lifeless chord progression and turns it into METAL. The soloing later on is sweet, too. Awesome. I do agree w/ Larry that the energy and overall volume does seem kind of subdued for the genre. I don't think it's a big deal if you just turn up your speakers/headphones, but I do think it could be more full - perhaps not even only on the production end but on the instrumentation end too. Some demonic synths, maybe some choir, beefier rhythm guitars (stereo-wise). Regardless, it's not a deal-breaker. Good job, this one had me nodding my head. YES

Yep, they will be until Tuesday or so, then it's release time.

Insane? THIS, IS, SOOOOOOOOONY!

You will be able to until CDBaby gets the actual CDs, which will probably be on Monday or Tuesday. I am mailing them the stuff today via FedEx.

Hate to double post, but I just got the phys CDs - they sound fine and look great, so it looks like preorders should ship on Tuesday or so. http://www.soundtempest.net/AGCD.JPG

Sad but true. Your avatar is a legend.

Thanks for the info. A few questions are still unanswered though.. What's the style of music? How many tracks are needed, and in what format? Also, you really need to be willing to commit to some form of compensation and sign to it... no one wants to be screwed out of their music. It's not as if a clause couldn't be set up saying that you have 30 to 60 days to deliver X payment based on sales, for example.

I am interested and have experience doing this kind of work. Can we get some more details, though? What's the deadline? What's the budget/compensaton plan? How much music is needed, what format, and what style? More info on the game itself would be helpful too.

Don't have a use for theme anymore. First item is a Digidesign Mbox 2, which is a USB audio interface that also runs Pro Tools 7 LE. Great way to get into the Pro Tools world, the interface itself is high quality also with good mic pres. New this is about $450, I'll let it go for $275+ship to anyone on OCR. Second item is a Creamware Luna II soundcard. This was originally owned by bLiNd and used for many of his mixes, so it's got some novelty value if nothing else It's a PCI soundcard (half size) with DSP chips, so not only can it do some crazy routings, but it also runs powerful plugins on the DSP chips rather than the host processor of your computer. Included are a buttload of plugs, including OptiMaster, PSY-Q, and Vinco, each of which are $200. I'll let the whole deal go for $300+ship which is a steal considering well over $1k was invested initially.

I know it can be daunting to begin with, but just try to take it one step at a time. It took me over a year to even figure out how to use FLStudio to make a song. I could barely wrap my head around the concept of a synth for at least two years.

It sounds like you don't know even the basics of sound processing. I suggest you do some reading on the links provided here. These are extremely simple questions of definition, at this point. To get you started, however, an "equalizer" (EQ) lets you turn the volume of audio (eg. an instrument or synth) UP or DOWN at a specific frequency. By turning the "high end" (the upper frequencies) UP you get a brighter sound, By turning them DOWN the sound becomes muffled. You control the volume of the specific frequency bands by using knobs or sliders on your equalizer of choice.

You can apply EQ to single instruments, you don't do it to the whole track. Ideally you want an individual equalizer on *each instrument* for total control. How do you know if two instruments are interfering? Use your ears. It's all practice. That's really all I can say. You need to develop your ears and listen to lots of well-produced music. The vocoder thing is a rather unorthodox suggestion, IMO. I wouldn't do it personally.

The idea is to have different instruments roughly represent different frequencies. Pianos have a lot of low-end, for example. Basses have a lot of low end. You want the bass to stand out and you want the piano to stand out. So, EQ the low-end of the piano down and you can increase its volume more without it interfering with the bass. Easy.

Hasn't been proposed, but there's really no reason you can't just tune in to oc.ormgas.com which streams random remixes 24/7. Same ultimate effect of being exposed to new music w/o having to download.

Gotta agree with Larry. Creative idea for an intro but you absolutely have to have more than that. Going minimal is OK if you're an ace sequencer or you can get a live performer to do a solo/dual guitar deal a la Tekcoh Top (for example) but there's no way that's going to work with a really fake guitar sound and sparse writing. Where's the rest of the song? NO