zircon

But inevitably NOT everyone will be able to provide lossless versions. We get subs and posted remixes now that were created years and years ago. So the torrent would necessarily incomplete, and why would we put something out to the public that is incomplete? We'd never hear the end of it.

I understand, and luckily with our site projects, bandwidth/space is less of an issue thanks to torrents, so there are basically always lossless files. Also, as atmuh said you can ask individual artists for lossless versions - they might give them to you if they have them. For example, while I keep lossless versions of a lot of my more recent material, my old stuff is essentially lost over the course of various hard drive crashes.

Space, bandwidth, etc. Keep in mind OCR was started in 1999... space and bandwidth were even more at a premium then, and very few people relative to today had broadband. But even today, it's not feasible for most people to render everything they do as lossless and share it like that. MP3 is just more convenient.

Yes, http://ocremix.org/hdremix/. The very front page has direct download links.

Yes, http://ff7.ocremix.org/ has HTTP mirrors.

Not kosher - you can't sample workstation keyboards legally, only non-sample based synths. Avoid 'em.

It's a fun question to think about, but the technical answer is one you might find disappointing. The number of parts is really not as important as the content of each part. You can (and I have) used 10-15 different drum sounds or loops in a single track simultaneously, but it sounds perfectly natural. On the other hand, if you were to play 64th note orchestra hit arpeggios - technically a single part - it would sound absolutely awful and almost like noise. So... "it depends" However, the posted ReMix which has the most total layers (that I know of) is "Black Wing Metamorphosis." There's a full choir, female soloist, an entire orchestra (strings, winds, brass, percussion and all the parts therein), rhythm and lead guitar parts, bass, breakbeat drums and synths. It's absolutely massive.

I recently did the music for a puzzle iPhone/iPad game called Peppers. It's the first handheld game I've done music for, and it is now available for purchase! If you've ever played Bejeweled or any other "match-3" game you get the general gist of the gameplay. The screen fills with objects (in this case, peppers) of different shapes/colors and you have to move them around to group up objects of the same shape/color. This game in particular takes that concept, polishes and develops it further, adding a number of twists that increase the difficulty and improve gameplay depth. I'm terrible at puzzle games myself but Peppers is a lot of fun, and (IMO) more strategic than the garden variety Bejeweled knockoffs out there. Plus, the way the difficulty scales among the three gameplay modes (and within each of the modes themselves) is a nice bonus, whereas many match-3 games never really become legitimately more challenging. You can check out screenshots, videos and more information about the game here: http://www.peppersthegame.com/ I wrote all of the music for the game, most of which is contained in a single MP3 available on my website: http://zirconmusic.com/music/light-new-age-electronic-track-for-iphone-game/ While I didn't do the SFX, Jill (pixietricks) did the voiceover ("sweet!" "fantastic!"), her first VA/VO credit

http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=100136 tl;dr balance post :3

I've written a mini-review of this album on my website, but I want to talk about it here as well. When Meteo first contacted me about this project, my expectations were pretty low. A lot of people have asked me to do mastering work and a lot of the music is nowhere near the quality of your average OC ReMixer, much less that of major artists or composers. However, when I sat down and actually listened to the entire album, I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. Every track struck a chord with me and had some kind of emotional resonance. Meteo described the music as being designed to take you to a different world, and that's what it did for me. This isn't something I say lightly, either. As I mentioned, I've worked on a lot of music for other people and most of it is uninspired, or technically proficient but without any real 'heart' or artistry. In fact, it's reminiscent of BT's "This Binary Universe" in that it's constantly evolving and just as much rooted in sound design as it is in melodies and harmony, but I would even say that Espers is more listenable, despite my great reverence for TBU. For $5.99, I really can't recommend this album enough.

Those graphics are all ripped from various Sonic games, as far as I can tell. None of them are handmade at all. That's how most fangames operate, anyway. Also, no, HD games won't show any pixelation - that's what high definition means when it comes to sprites. The sprites are drawn at like 16x their display size so that no matter how they're scaled on the screen (1080p resolution on a 54" TV, for example) they'll look smooth. If you compare the size of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix sprites to the original SSF2T sprites, it's insane: http://www.devindra.org/tech/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/ryu-sprites-large.jpg

Those graphics aren't HD. They're just ripped from the original games. The VIDEO is in HD. These are HD: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2048/2441878832_1a30d621ef.jpg

Regarding VSL vs. QLSO, here's something from a post I made on AudioGANG:

OK! So, I've been using Komplete since version 2, and while I don't have KORE, I'd say it's the best purchase I've ever made - and I paid $1400 for it ($1k for v2, ~$200 for the upgrades to v4 and v6.) Here's the breakdown of Komplete. * Kontakt 4 - As you know, this is THE sampler, and you need it to run all the best third-party libraries. However, the built-in library is also fantastic. I've been using the organs and orchestral sounds extensively on the Monkey Island 2 soundtrack. I haven't explored the ethnic/world section in great depth but what I've played has been very usable and high-quality. * FM8 - This would be an awesome synth even if you could only use the presets, of which there are literally thousands that come with it. You can also download original DX7 banks and load those in too. Besides the standard variety of bells, pads and solid basses, FM8 has a lot of really nice moving and arpeggiated sounds. I've been using FM7/FM8 since 2004 or so and it's very useful for adding some interesting sonic character to a piece. A hidden bonus is the "FM8FX" plugin which lets you run any synth through the FM8 mod matrix (ie. modulate audio in real-time!) as well as the FM8 effects themselves. The Psychedelay is one of my favorite effects ever. * Massive - An excellent synth for electronic and hip-hop music. Very gritty and nasty with lots of ways to overdrive, distort and shape the sound. I never got into programming with it, but for electro-house and big beat, I love the presets (and tweaking them is a breeze.) * Absynth 5 - This is a synth I've been using for awhile too, and it's another one that can add really unique sounds to a mix. It's particularly good for drones, pads, textures and atmospheric parts, though it CAN do some interesting variations on bread-and-butter patches too. Programming it isn't too difficult but the real benefit is the Absynth FX plugin which, like FM8, lets you run audio through the Absynth shaping and FX matrix. Very powerful stuff. * Guitar Rig 4 - Unquestionably better than Guitar Amp Pro, though as guitar amp sims go, I think most would say it is not the very best, merely "good". Still, I use it all the time for amping up Shreddage and sometimes for processing bass parts. * Battery 3 - If you're looking for the best acoustic drum plugin, you might look elsewhere, since the kits in Battery 3 pale in comparison to those in major drum plugins like BDF2 or S2. However, its world and ethnic percussion is definitely solid, as is the GM2 kit (again, used extensively in MI2). Also, the "Production" and "Electronic" kit categories are extremely unique. I've used them in countless electronic tracks. * Reaktor 5 - Unless you're a maniac, don't even bother learning to really program this thing. If it sounds interesting to you, go for it, but IMO there is such a wealth of material in the free Reaktor libraries out there that you can spend weeks just playing with what people have already done. Subtractive synth emulations, crazy FX, compressors, and everything in between. So, I would definitely say that for an extra $100-200, Komplete 6 is unquestionably worth it. For about the same price (maybe a bit less), you could get Quantum Leap RA, and while that would be slightly better overall for a greater variety in ethnic instruments, you're missing out on so much that I'd say it's not worth the trade.

For what it's worth, wanting to be a posted ReMixer and make stuff as good as McVaffe was pretty much 95% of my motivation when I started producing music. Sometimes, it's good to have something to shoot for.

HOW is this user not banned from Newgrounds yet? ALL of his plagiarized mtaerial is still there.

Here's the Terra Boom-Tiss Drumloops mix! http://www.zirconstudios.com/music/A1_2010/Final_Fantasy_6_Terra_BoomTiss_Beats.mp3

Yep, it was done on short notice - we decided on it at the end of PAX East, but from the time we got back we were all working on it pretty intensely. I had the Electronic Terra mix and Solo Piano Schala.

That would be my first (and last) attempt at singing, 80s electro-pop nerd-ballad style. http://zirconstudios.com/music/fullsongs/zircon_(Andrew_Aversa)_-_ROMance.mp3 (Note: I can sing better now.)

Anything I'm involved in is always maxed out. Always. (Also yeah Larry, we are gonna do a video, just need a bunch of cosplayers)

aych DEE, SON

You know, to be honest I kind of agree with you on that. I think it's WAY more important for people to have fun with remixing and making music, not to study textbooks first. It's easy for me to look back and say "oh, I wish I had learned the ins and outs of subtractive synthesis from day 1" or "if only I had studied music theory for 5 years", but maybe if I had tried that I never would have been motivated enough to really pursue it. My first piano teacher was not a strict disciplinarian, and neither were my parents when it came to playing the piano. They encouraged me to enjoy it (while still practicing 20-30 mins a day, expanding to 45) which eventually led to greater proficiency.

Honestly though, again, if you just listen to my early remixes and originals you'd hear how absolutely awful they were. Those 8 years of piano experience really didn't mean much at all, and to make matters worse I was primarily relying on premade loops and sounds! I attribute my improvement (messed with music in very late '02, posted in '04) to sheer dedication. I made a hell of a lot of crappy ReMixes. I bugged people left and right for advice. I made it a point to try to collaborate with people like Unknown/Tyler Heath, Rellik and tefnek. I studied the tools out there and relentlessly upgraded my setup, from buying headphones (instead of using $20 computer monitors), to getting Komplete 2, to upgrading my computer, etc.

I want to oil up... so bad ;_;

There are a lot of articles online about this; I've read a number on the topic, but often times I end up clicking links within the article (or at the end) to other websites and don't bookmark them or remember who the author is. I suggest starting at www.Sirlin.net and reading his GDC articles, as well as the talk by Jesse Schell which he links to, and the response to that piece. There are elements of external rewards in games like WoW, but Farmville's design literally revolves around getting the user hooked on external rewards and encouraging them to spend as much money as possible to get such rewards.