zircon

Darke + Larry covered it. This sounds to me like it's the original with different instruments. I'm sure it sounds better than the GBA's basic soundset, but that is not what OCR is about. OCReMixes should stand alone as individual songs. You need an arrangement that not only is a unique interpretation of the source tune, but one that works on its own. Production-wise, it's probably a little too bass-heavy as things are pretty muddy and centered. The ReMixing forum would be the place to go for that. NO

Hmm.. yeah, big problem here is that everything sounds thickly reverbed and centered in the stereo field (mono, basically). Tone down the reverb and give the individual parts some room to breathe. Anyway, one thing you have to understand about OCR is that we're not looking for remakes of songs, but ReMixes. There is a distinction. You gotta really develop the tune into something more than the often simplistic melodies that were there to begin with. Add your own spin to it, and not just by changing instruments either. There is nothing inherently wrong with remaking, covering, or upgrading songs either; it's just not what we're looking for here. Check the ReMixing and Works in Progress forums for additional help. NO

Well... I don't think giving away a bit of information at this point is a big deal, since we're coming down the home stretch. djpretzel as far as I know will be doing the art. This is one of many official OCR Site Projects, and as such, it will be free to download through BitTorrent and from various mirrors.

Yeah. Any sequencer you listed is capable of doing this kind of thing. What you REALLY want to look into would be the samples, synths, and effects used to get that characteristic sound. As far as I'm aware, most Japanese RPG soundtracks are created using traditional hardware workstations and sound modules from brands like Yamaha, Roland, and Korg. The SC-88 for example has been used as the orchestral palette for countless RPGs. In other words, while modern sound software like Komplete 3 and SampleTank have wonderful sounds, they probably will not give you the classic "Japanese RPG" sound. To get that you would want to check out things like Edirol Orchestral, the Korg M1/Wavestation VST, and sample CDs of keyboards from the mid to late 90s. Just my two cents. I could be wrong on some of this.

Cid's theme has been claimed, but I have not heard a wip of it yet.

There is not a lot you can do in less than two minutes. If you look at the ReMixes we have been posting for the last year or two, most are well over two minutes. You need a decent amount of time to develop an arrangement. This is not particularly developed. The sounds are very plain and mechanical, and the piece itself does not change significantly in any way - key, tempo, rhythms, chords, etc. Your goal here should be to make your own interpretation of a tune by means of varying it and adding your own material. It sounds to me like you probably just played it straight up here with some simple instruments. That's no good. Check out the WIP and ReMixing forums in the future before you submit. NO

Yeah, Liontamer and Darkesword hit the nail on the head. I enjoy doing upgrades of SNES tunes from time to time myself, but that's not what OCR is about. You gotta put more thought into the arrangement. It sounds to me like you have a fairly good grasp of production (though the odd, slightly panned strings are no good imo) so just put that to good use with a more interpretive arrangement. NO

Here's an update for you guys. * We're going to have a teaser site up soon enough. * There are nine totally completed songs sitting on my hard drive. * Six songs are nearing completion. * Ten songs are in the mostly-WIP stages, I estimate at least half of these will be included. * Nine songs have been claimed and some basic work has been done.. probably 1/3 of these will be included.

Fair enough. You're right that it's a bit unusual for me. For one thing this is the slowest original I have ever remixed; sub-90 BPMs are fairly difficult to work with. Another thing is that I actually did this ReMix with only a tenth of my normal synth/sample collection. I started it on a whim after my prmiary music software drive got wiped. However, I did have a lot of fun with it and as long as some people are enjoying it as much as I did, then mission accomplished, I say Thanks for the comments, all.

I remember hearing VHDan for the first time on VGmix, and I thought he was sounding sharp then, and clearly he hasn't lost his touch. This is a good arrangement with strong production values, and I don't really have much more to add than that. YES

Revised vote: Upon listening to the original, I gotta say that the interpretation factor isn't here as far as our site standards are concerned. The original is directly sampled and relied upon as the foundation for the mix. While the percussive, harmonic, and melodic additions are all well-done, the fact that they rely on that direct sampled riff means that this is a "remix" in the traditional sense rather than a full-fledged arrangement. There's a LOT of creativity here, and the production is solid for sure. I wish I could yes this as a result, but you gotta be more expansive on the source tune, rather than just additive. NO Looking forward to hearing more work from you in the future. Resub this one if you can rework the arrangement appropriately.

It's the moment you've ALL been waiting for!!!! VGDJ Episode 050 has been released at www.vgdj.net ! Truly, a momentous episode. .. not

Hey, I think I know what the point of the WIP forum is.. I am a judge, after all It's just that lots of times, people post WIPs with finished arrangements, but they want production advice, or advice before they submit, etc. So it has become a habit for me to simply give my suggestions in all areas of the mix.

Submit. That's my first impression. This is amazing. If I had to make some suggestions to improve on it more, here's what I would do. One would be to pan your drums a little more and/or add slight reverb to them. They are somewhat dry and centered right now, which isn't a huge deal, but widening them and adding some verb would certainly make a difference. Another thing would be to write an actual ending rather than use a fadeout. Given how short the mix is, a fade is a bit lame. Lastly, while I can easily pick out the melody, since the mix IS on the short side you might consider doing a little bit more with the theme. Maybe do a more straight-up play of it right before ending, for example; just something to solidify it a bit more. All that aside, I think if I were asked to vote on this right now I would likely go YES.

Why, thank you! I feel like I've gotten better also, and hearing it from someone else means a lot to me.

Don't call ME out. I'm just repeating what Blizzard said. But frankly, I have faith in them. WoW is the most finely detailed and balanced MMO I have ever played.

Bliz also said that they would be looking at Shamans in a new light with this new change in mind. In other words, they can be balanced differently. They no longer have to be thought of "the Horde counterpart of Paladins", but as its own class.

Well, the bombshell just hit... Direct from Blizzard: Shamans and Paladins will now be cross-faction once the expansion comes out.

Hey guys, just FYI it's not looking like we will have a release of an episode this Monday. My sister's getting married and I'll be heading to the wedding, pixietricks will be visiting her family for a few days.. ya'll know how it is. But don't worry, 050 is still in the works and it should tickle your fancy for sure. So, in the meantime, listen to some previous episodes, idle in IRC, catch up on old stingers, watch some home movies.. we'll be back before ya know it.

Two classes already have Shadow as a major method of attack (priest, warlock). Another Shadow class would not make sense. Ice is really only represented by the Mage.. Shamans don't count as they're only caster hybrids, and have Nature, Ice, AND Fire.

There's some creative stuff here in terms of instrument choices and sound design/effects usage. I'd much rather hear something like this that's a little too messy or chaotic, than something that's too conservative and simplistic. Congratulations on being interpretive. Now, in terms of things you might want to take another look at, I would start with the harmonies you have going on. The main schala riff at times just doesn't really fit with the chords you have in the background in the pad parts, for example, and noticeably clashes. Don't be afraid to rewrite the riff as necessary to fit the new chords. When the morning theme comes in, that too clashes a little bit. 2:21 in particular sounds awkward. Your drums are very good overall. Highly creative. However, I think at times they are perhaps overly spastic. It's ok to go nuts with panning, slicing, and effects for some of the time but generally it's not a bad idea to have a central groove that's a bit more 'stable' and use that to go off into new areas. Something like 1:10, but perhaps a little more prominent. Production-wise you could probably beef up your kicks more, make the snare hits a little more wet (slight reverb will do it), and tone down the higher frequencies on the hats, but this is generally nitpicking. I want to emphasize that this is a very strong first submission. You have a lot of good ideas, and the overall concept is solid. Just work on fleshing out some of the issues we've mentioned and I think you'll have a good shot at getting this mix passed. NO

Bad puns aside, I gotta agree with Liontamer on everything here. This is a very simplistic adaptation of the original tune to a dance genre. The synths are all extraordinarily basic and there is nothing about the drum beat to make it exciting or interesting. Getting down a really solid wall of sound in this style is just pure practice, though if you want to speed up the process, I suggest talking to ReMixers whose style you'd like to emulate and ask them how they get their sound. Otherwise, the ReMixing forum is the place to go for more generalized advice. NO

I think I like this a little more than the above two judges did. There are some nifty compositional ideas here that I was really feeling, and I think the reverb issue is not all that significant (I've heard much worse in professional recordings). Production-wise the samples are used very well, with the brass and specifically the sax(es) being the weakest link. The main problem I have is the structure of the mix. Everything is more or less at the same dynamic level, and despite the fact that there are lots of variations and changes in the texture, overall there is not much development. It's more like a 4:02 mix of action cues rather than a standalone piece. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but from our perspective, looking at the big musical picture, I think you need more cohesion to pull the different ideas together. I encourage you to sit down and take another look at this from the conceptual + structural standpoint, work on it a bit more, and resubmit. This is very close to passing, in my opinion. NO

We're back in full-force! Here we go... Episode 049 of VGDJ has been released at www.vgdj.net! Clocking in at just under an hour, this is fat. But good.

Uh oh.. meant for OLR? Anyway, I agree with Vig that there are some cool sounds involved here. However, some of them are a little abrasive (high freq-wise) and really they're not put together in a meaningful way for most of this. If a little more time was put into... organizing the chaos, I suppose, I think this might have a good shot at passing, actually. It is not much different than the sort of stuff Shnabubula does, as Larry said, just the arrangement is not nearly as complex. Why not put some more time into that aspect and resubmit? I'd like to hear what you can do. NO