zircon

I'm in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Guys, regarding the middle finger picture, for one thing the photo wasn't even pixie's idea. Neither was posting it for that matter. She *resisted* as a matter of fact, contrary to what you might think! Everyone except one or two people in the room was going along with the fun and several people even took the same picture and were going to post it (I don't think they've actually gotten around to uploading anything yet). No sense in pinning the blame on just her. Everyone (including her) is ready to move on here, as Bahamut and Dave stated. Edit: Jose and fivre both posted pretty much the same series of pictures.

http://www.zirconstudios.com/zirc-SMW.mp3 (Last update 1/10 11:43pm) Started it tonight just a little while ago, more updates to come VERY soon. It's still rough, but... yeah. Feedback? :> EDIT: Updated w/ new stuff, better production EDIT 2: More arrangement, better mastering, MORE BADASS

Very cool, thanks for this avaris!

Guys, quit derailing the thread with camera stuff (read: Ayres). Consider this a warning.

Yep, you can post in that thread.

Damn, that was a BLAST... just got back about 5 minutes ago. In fact, I took the train home with virt, prozax, and Bahamut.

Hi and welcome to OCR! There is an introduction thread in one of our other forums. You can post an introduction there: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2070

You are correct. General Discussion is games, anime, music, and any topics directly related. Off Topic will not be "UnMod-style postings", though SOME of the content may be similar. The moderation for Off Topic will be identical to General Discussion. The only difference will be the content allowed. Since this has already been decided unanimously by all of the site staff, there is no point in discussing this here, so I'll lock it. Feel free to ask questions to moderators/site staff in PM if you are still confused.

See the topic in the Announcements forum.

Not moving/deleting this thread, but it's really not appropriate GenDisc material. Once the OffTopic forum is created, you will be able to post threads like this. For the next week, I hope y'all will be able to live without it.

I have no idea why the Writer's Thread(s) were deleted. I will bring it up with the other OCR staff later. However Gen Disc has never been the place to question this kind of thing. As always, if something happens regarding moderation that you really think is in error, use PM or AIM rather than make a thread about it. Same as it has always been. The thread(s) created about the writer's thread are no exception, and I spoke with Imagery about it privately already. No more threads on this please. We'll clear this up.

Cool video. OverCoat; I'm not entirely sure that's real software... kind of looks like an editing effect to me. But a brickwall limiter might achieve the same result, right?

Ah, Indian food. But yes, I would like to do a big collab and flesh out the track (including GIGASAMPLEZ) for some serious ownage. pixie's sultry, airy vox + Malcos' R&B sexiness + the illest flows from blad + 2P. Sounds like a winner in my head, so let's do it. ...well when I get back from MAGfest anyway.

Agreed. I think for now it would be in everyone's best interests to lock this thread temporarily. You can still voice your opinions of course via PM or catch us on IRC, but let's try to avoid the drama on OCR. And the blog is always open for general comments.

BUMP - results are in! We'll discuss what I'mma do with the winners soon

Hey, understandable concerns... though the reason I put that in was mainly because we just didn't want to be bombarded with "who's the next host" or "can I do a radio show to replace VGDJ" or "can I be the next host". That kind of stuff. As you can imagine that is the absolute last kind of stuff we wanted to hear - especially pixie since she was still ready to continue. I wouldn't say we've locked in the future just yet.

Hey everyone. I have some bad news to report to everyone. Some of you may have seen this coming, and others, perhaps not, but here it is: I'm leaving VGDJ. And because pixietricks does not want to find another cohost, this means that our run with this podcast is now over. There is not a complex set of reasons behind this, unlike why we both took a break. Simply put, while I had a lot of fun in the ~6 months I spent as a cohost, the show has never been my highest priority compared to my relationship with Jill, school, or my endeavors as a musician trying to make a career out of his work. In particular, since I plan on being self-employed by the end of college, I feel like I must really focus myself on earning a sizable salary from music. And, unfortunately, I can't maintain enthusiasm for doing the show while these other things are on my plate. I want to emphasize that this was not Jill's decision but mine. She was ready and willing to continue, and had already gotten stuff together for Magfest - a mixer and mics to record our panel, a logo for a business card to hand out at the festival to give to ReMixers, a new plan for integrating the podcast with the site, and other things like that. And I wish I was able to come to a decision about this before she spent her own time working on developing the show further, but I suppose it was not until today that I realized there was no point in me continuing if I could not really put my full effort into doing it. It wouldn't be fair to you, the listeners, nor would it be fair to Jill, who has really been the driving force behind VGDJ ever since she first got involved. So... I am sorry to everyone that this came suddenly, and I'm sorry that because of my decision the show has to stop. I wish it could have come at a different time, or that my career didn't require exorbitant amounts of time and energy to truly develop. I will still be on OCR judging mixes and posting. I'll still be writing tutorials. I'll still listen to and comment on WIPs, go to meetups, and idle on IRC. I had a blast hosting the show with Jill, and we put out some really great material... from interviews, to VGL, Otakon, the meetups, Flow Basket, crazy stingers, and everything in between. Peace, and I hope you guys can still be cool with me. ps. Jill won't be looking for a new cohost, nor will anybody be replacing us.

Wow, cool beats my friend. I hate to admit to groove bias but the drum sequencing here is just really good throughout and works well. Other aspects of the production were great too - from the guitar chops to the mallet percussion to the synth leads. Some of them were rather simple in execution but really fit in. No real complaints. I mean, maybe the sine lead w/ vibrato could have had some triangle or square mixed in to make it cut through more... but really, it's cool. I like the arrangement also. The ending was fine - I don't listen to Radiohead so I don't know if the comparison is accurate I DO agree with Malcos that repetition is a weak point here. That being said, it's approached tastefully enough. There's obviously unique interpretation and the source is being sufficiently varied. Some of the chords were changed from the original. At one point, the melody goes high - was a VI in the original but you had it as a v in the mix (I think)... I think the VI was stronger, ultimately, so I'm not feeling that variation. Plus, it makes things slightly more repetitive since you go back and forth between I and v before that anyway. But that's a really small gripe. I'm giving this one a... Work on your FF7 mix. Err, I mean... YES

Wow, some really neat sound design things going on in this mix. I liked aluminum's other stuff and it seems to me that he has only improved. Neat rhythmic gating and stuttering effects, nice non-traditional pads, what sounds like vocoding or formant filtering... man, just props all around on the creative production end. Goes without saying that the arrangement is strong too. I don't think it's liberal at all. The chord progression primarily locks it in, comparing the two side by side I don't think anyone would have trouble figuring it out. Certainly once the melody is showed off, it's not hard. E.Piano is a little harsh but hey, RHODES baby, RHODES!!! Anyway... yesh, thwomp likes mix. YES

Frank is impressive with his production skills almost all the time. It's rare that I really have a problem with his synths, his beats, or his sample usage... but I have to agree with Larry. If there was one thing that was weak in the production end it was the brass. Plus the texture/instrumentation of the mix never really felt like it was gelling properly. You had those big hip hop claps early on, for example, which I was not feeling. Later on (towards the end) you had 'em with the beats, where they fit more, but by that time some of the other elements like the 'miscellaneous' percussion and orch strings were gone. I feel like you need to focus your ideas here of what you want the mix to sound like. And don't get me wrong, I am all for hybrid genres... just listen to my own mixes and you'll hear that, but still, I think this particularly combination you used didn't work. On the arrangement front I had several problems. One is perhaps more subjective, but the second to last chord of the Castle BGM music (before the V) was minor in the original, and you made it major every time you used it. It stuck out to me, and detracted from the feel imo. If you're going to change that one chord to make it a little less ominous and dark, why not jazz up some of the other ones, which were otherwise used verbatim? This brings me to my next point which is the lack of interpretation. Larry already pointed this out, but I feel it's worth emphasizing because it's probably the weaker area of the mix. The source material is used straight up with very little variation throughout the mix. The same riffs are repeated over and over mostly with instrument changes rather than melodic ones. Why not try some soloing over the chord progression(s), or using more of the castle BGM? Now, there were a few points in the mix where I thought you were being interpretive, but you didn't build on them. For example, those swung rhythms in the background of the first 45 seconds with the hand percussion was hot. I was expecting some meaty stuff on top of that, but you never developed it and instead went with the fakey brass just playing the original straight up. Then, in the overworld section, you were having fun with rhythms and percussion again but chose to transition abruptly back to the more lackluster castle BGM material. Though, I have to say, if you had worked more on the arrangement of the preceding and following sections, I wouldn't have minded the conservative Overworld treatment. Bottom line... the production is almost all there, but the arrangement needs some rethinking. Refine & resubmit, this has potential to be a lot better. NO

lol coudl u guys vote on my song thanx owait they're all my song

OK, all the entries are uploaded, so now it's time to vote. Here are the voting guidelines. * ANYONE can vote. * PM me (zircon) only - do not email - with your top three picks. A first place pick earns the person three points, second place gets two points, and third place gets one. So the order is important. Also include several sentences about why you voted the way you did. * The two things to keep in mind as voting criteria are arrangement and production. Try to weight these equally. -> Arrangement: The ReMix should be recognizable as using at least one of the source tunes I listed at the beginning. Generally speaking you don't have to judge as harshly as the panel does for OC ReMixes, but try to keep in mind the site standards. The mix shouldn't be too close or too far from the original, and it should stand alone as a song... in other words not background music. -> Production: Recording quality of live stuff, how well the samples are used, choice of sounds, muddiness/clarity. In other words, does it SOUND good? * You cannot vote for yourself. * Voting ends on January 10th, 11:59pm EST. * Try not to discuss your votes with anyone, or in this thread... we want voting to be as clean as possible. With that, here are the entries. In double parenthesis are the source tunes that were covered. Alex Smith - Trombone Fantasy mvmt 1 ((Opening/Bombing Mission)) Another Soundscape - Spacing Chocobos (Hold Your Hats) ((Racing Chocobos: Place Your Bets! Avaris - The Satiated Mind ((Opening/Bombing Mission)) Chihana - Even More Fighting ((Still More Fighting)) Fishy - Place Your Beats ((Racing Chocobos: Place Your Bets!)) Mustin - Serenity ((Main Theme of Final Fantasy 7)) Nicole Adams, Sir NutS - Main Theme ((Main Theme of Final Fantasy 7)) Prophet of Mephisto - The Road from Midgar ((Main Theme of Final Fantasy 7)) Reuben Kee - Still More Sexy Fighting ((Still More Fighting)) Rexy - Chocobo Prelude ((Racing Chocobos: Place Your Bets!)) Swordbreaker - Overworld Freestylin' ((Main Theme of Final Fantasy 7)) Tricklozen - Barret's Theme is Probably Marlene's Theme ((Barret's Theme)) Zoola - Cruisin' Sector 7 ((Barret's Theme)) sephfire, Tweek - A Chronicle Unfolds: Reactor One ((Opening/Bombing Mission)) OR DOWNLOAD THEM ALL IN THIS HANDY ZIP!!!!!! NOTE: If you have any questions, or need to make any corrections to what I've posted above (eg. wrong source tune), please let me know!

Hey guys, pretty sure I got all the entries (13 total) but I won't be able to upload them and set up the voting until later today - festivities, and all. Sorry for the delay.

1. Finish a third album and distribute it online and in physical stores. 2. Finish the Final Fantasy 7 ReMix project, Voices of the Lifestream, and release it. 3. Earn $10,000 (or more) from music-related endeavors. 4. Exercise more often. Take at least one decent walk (1 mile or more) every week for NO purpose other than to exercise. eg. Not a walk to McDonalds. 5. Get more proficient at playing guitar - practicing at least 15 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week.