DarkeSword

Starting today, the sharing of music generated by feeding a prompt into AI-software is prohibited on OC ReMix, both here on the forums and on our Discord. LLMs, AI, and other machine-learning technologies are both interesting and impressive, but the implementation of these technologies in popular usage rely largely on unethical training practices. Copyrighted works are used without artist consent to train commercial AI-models. Moreover, OverClocked ReMix has, over the course of over 20 years, established itself as a place for artists to learn about the composition and production of music and hone their craft. We ask artists to pay tribute to VGM through the art of interpretation; we're looking for the personal spin, the human touch. I, personally, don't believe audio generated by a machine-learning algorithm is doing that. There are ethical implementations of AI-technology in the music sphere, such as sample libraries, physical modeling software, and audio production suites that use machine-learning to perform complicated tasks that an artist can use in the production process. Sharing music that uses this kind of tech is absolutely fine. But tracks generated wholly or in-part by services like Suno and Udio (among others) do not belong here. And just to clarify, the discussion of machine-learning, LLMs, and AI here at OC ReMix is not prohibited, but should be tempered by an understanding of the goals of our community, which include artistic development and education and the appreciation of VGM through thoughtful exploration and interpretation. Thanks. -- DarkeSword

I'm happy to announce a couple of staffing changes here at OCR. First up, I wanna welcome @Hemophiliac to our Judges Panel! Hemo's been putting in the work for the last few years as one of our Workshop Evaluators, and has also stepped up in the past few months to handle a lot of the visualizers for the remixes you see on our YouTube channel. He's an active presence in our community and has a lot of helpful advice in the Workshop. We're glad to add him to the panel. Look forward to getting some fresh new NO votes on your tracks! Speaking of Workshop Evaluators, a few months ago we retired our Ready for Review process in the Workshop because we felt that it was a cumbersome extra layer of evaluation prior to submitting to the Judge's Panel. Our Evaluators did a lot of great work over the years but we're retiring that role. In it's place, we're introducing our new team called Sages! Sages are active artists in our community who'll be in the Workshop giving feedback on remixes, posting tutorials, and coming up with their own ways to revitalize and energize the Workshop. Our three new Sages are @Xaleph, @pixelseph, and @paradiddlesjosh! We're glad to have some fresh faces on staff, and I'm personally looking forward to seeing what these folks have in store for us. -- DarkeSword

Hey this is great. There's not a lot to the source tune but you came in and gave us a really compact and concise take on it that still manages to stuff in melody and solos. Really liked the bits at 1:04 and 1:35 as well. This is only 2 minutes but I feel like you still wrote something chunky and substantial. Really enjoyed this.

So I like the general vibe of this a lot, but I've got a few issues: I think the alernating clap and snare is throwing me off. It took me a while to get used to the on-off-off-on over and over again, but I feel like I can't just vibe to this; its a little distracting. Maybe this is a genre-staple I'm not aware of?? The bulk of this track is dominated by this unchanging synth line on top of everything. It doesn't stick out from a mixing perspective but it's just there and doesn't really change all that much. Feels like the focal point when the source really should be instead. Speaking of the source, it kind of gets drowned in reverb and there's some melodic stuff happening that just blends into mush at the end. I'd love for the source to come forward a bit at take center stage. Nice work, will keep an eye out for this one.

Oh hell yessssss I'm super digging the 70s vibe of this. I audibly said "heyyyyy" at 1:30 when the major key part of the source dropped in and you pulled back the energy. Really nice use of dynamics. There's a sort of spacey feel to this at certain points with some of the synths you use; I think you could lean into that sound a little more. Looking forward to where you take this one.

There's a lot of reverb here on the orchestral elements. Not a whole lot of dynamics either. Feels like the energy of this track stays pretty level all throughout. Hearing a lot of elements play in unison (synth stabs plus strings) which makes things uninteresting from a partwriting persepective. This could do with some countermelodies or something to keep things fresh as the piece progresses. I don't feel like there's any storytelling here; feels like a sound upgrade but the whole soundscape feels messy.

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Metroid game and the other from a Castlevania game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 3 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for each matchup: Super Metroid vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Theme of Super Metroid Door of Holy Spirits Metroid Prime vs. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Menu Select Theme Forbidden Realm Metroid Fusion vs. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Neo Ridley Boss Theme Mad Forest You can also use this thread to leave comments about the tracks. Remember to be kind and constructive. Thanks for listening, and thanks for voting!

Sorry Mark, we haven't do anything with badge customization (yet). Can look into it though. Welcome back though! Nice to see you. I actually was just listening to Star Orion (Airplay Edit) the other day while hanging out with my wife and son. Wife was like "what is this!? this is great!!" and we threw on Shattered Time on your bandcamp page and had that playing all day.

NO Override for the reasons Brad stated above. Not a remix at all. This is a playlist of tracks from the OST.

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Metroid game and the other from a Castlevania game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 2 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for each matchup: Super Metroid vs. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) Purification Metroid Prime vs. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Tallon Overworld Depths Overture Metroid Fusion vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Environmental Mystery Marble Gallery You can also use this thread to leave comments about the tracks. Remember to be kind and constructive. Thanks for listening, and thanks for voting!

The skill pages referenced a specific database view that broke after we made some changes to the user's profile fields. I've rebuilt the view to ignore those fields. The skill pages now work again.

Skill pages on the Workshop dashboard are broken and returning a blank page. https://ocremix.org/workshop/skill/bitwig-studio

Remixes are due in 16-bit, 44.1khz WAV format by the end of this event. Use the provided form to submit your tracks. Here are our matchups for Round 2! First up is Super Metroid vs. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow! You're combining Maridia (Rocky Underwater Area) Purification Next is Metroid Prime vs. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse! You're combining Tallon Overworld Depths Overture Last but not least is Metroid Fusion vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! You're combining Environmental Mystery Marble Gallery Your team is responsible for writing three remixes, one for for each match-up. Each remix should aim to combine both tracks into a single, cohesive piece of music. Remember, you're not writing two separate remixes and sticking them end-to-end, but writing a track that captures both sources as a piece of music that stands on its own. Remixes should be at least 1 minute in length. Every remix you submit is worth 2 points just for submitting, so make sure your team submits all three remixes or you risk falling behind. Here's a YouTube playlist of the sources.

Voting thread is up! Get the music!

Voting Guidelines Teams were tasked with writing three mashup arrangements of two songs each, one from a Metroid game and the other from a Castlevania game. In order to make your vote, listen to the remixes and, for each pair, choose the remix that fulfills the following criteria (listed in order of importance): The remix arranges both source tunes in an interesting and identifiable way into one cohesive piece of music. The remix is well-produced within the conventions of the genre. The remix is enjoyable to listen to. Stream the remixes via Soundcloud or Download the Round 1 Remix Pack (MP3). For your reference, here are the source tunes for each matchup: Super Metroid vs. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Brinstar (Red Soil Swampy Area) Beginning Metroid Prime vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Phendrana Drifts Lost Painting Metroid Fusion vs. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Sector 4 (AQA) Heart of Fire You can also use this thread to leave comments about the tracks. Remember to be kind and constructive. Thanks for listening, and thanks for voting!