-
Posts
9,389 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
153
Content Type
Articles
Profiles
Forums
Events
Everything posted by DarkeSword
-
Our forum software doesn't provide a self-service account deletion option, otherwise I'd enable it. If you'd like to delete your account you can request it in the Security & Privacy section of your account settings.
-
*NO* World of Warcraft "The Stars Whispered His Name"
DarkeSword replied to Liontamer's topic in Judges Decisions
It's a tough call but I'm gonna side with the NOs on this one. I don't feel like there was enough variation to justify the length here. There's a lot of repeated phrases, which normally I don't mind, but it doesn't feel like a structure thing here, just more like padding. I think the production is feature of the genre, so no qualms there, but Flex is dead-on about the drums; needs more humanization and variation, which I feel like you could pull off while still operating within the conventions of the genre. Interesting take but ultimately it's a NO from me. -
Error code: -200 when trying to upload submission
DarkeSword replied to AxRob's topic in Site Issues & Feedback
It's an ongoing issue with PHP config on our server. You can use the offsite hosting option and provide a google drive or dropbox link or something to your sub instead. -
The Judges Panel has been talking about ways to work through the queue of submitted remixes at a faster pace, and after a lot of discussion and weighing the pros and cons, we've come to a decision that's probably one of the biggest adjustments to our process in a long time: Submissions no longer require four (4) YES votes to pass. A decision is reached as soon as the difference in votes is three (3). To clarify the key change here: when a submission receives three (3) YES votes and there are zero (0) NO votes, the submission is accepted, because the difference in votes is three (3). If a submission continues to go back and forth without reaching +3 in either direction, the panel will continue to vote until all active judges have voted and the majority will determine the decision. This update to our decision making process will immediately apply to any submissions on the panel at the time of this announcement going live, and for all decisions moving forward. We won't be going back to previous rejections to find decisions that started with three (3) uncontested YES votes but eventually got rejected; in those cases, what's done is done. We hope that artists will find this new criteria a little bit easier to understand. Overall, we've been impressed with the quality of work being sent in these past months, and this should make it easier for us to get the slam dunk tracks through the process faster. Thanks to all the artists who continue to participate in our curation process. Hope to hear your work soon. - DarkeSword
-
Thanks. This is a known issue related to an intermediate fix for the torrents while we got some issues with the tracker worked out. Will resolve soon.
-
Had a lot of people leeching/seeding last night when things went live. I personally used qBittorrent to make the torrent and saw peers using qBittorrent and Transmission. I can take a look again at the torrent to see what's going on.
-
I've been a web developer by trade for a long time before I took over OCR, so I have a general sense of where features like this end up getting put. One thing you can always try is when you log into a site, you can sometimes click your own username (the thing that indicates you're logged in). Sometimes designers put information related to you or your account under that. Rainwave does the same thing. Click on your username, and a big info block with some links slides into place.
-
I assume you're referring to OCR Radio on Rainwave. We don't control that here but a quick look brings me to this page: https://rainwave.cc/pages/all_faves Looks like that's where Rainwave keeps your favorites.
-
Don't try to throw the OCR mission statement in my face and think that that somehow proves your point. Nowhere in that mission statement does it say that we need to treat all forms of music in the world equally, regardless of whether it was written by a person or generated by a machine-learning algorithm. That's not there. We are dedicated to the appreciation of and promotion of video game music as an artform. This has, for the last 25 years, meant recognizing that the composers who wrote music for video games created art. They are artists. They are human beings who made thoughtful decisions about the music they wrote. They created with intent. Can you use machine-learning tools to create artwork with intent? Sure. I pretty clearly stated in the announcement that I don't have a problem with machine learning as a technology, but that I don't want people to post music on OCR from services that trained their models on music that was not provided with consent from the artists who created that music. The technology is not the problem; the people building these services using resources they're not supposed to are the problem. These folks have not figured out how to build these services without plundering the collective creative works on the internet. No thanks.
-
"Recording wind chimes" is not in the same space as using machine-learning algorithms trained on consentless work. The first post of this thread also says don't share work generated generated wholly or in-part by UDIO. Come on man.
-
Game Set Mash!! 3 - Streets of Rage vs. Etrian Odyssey
DarkeSword replied to DarkeSword's topic in Competitions
Pushing this to August! Sign up sign up sign up! -
I made some changes to some things but I’ve been seeing if people report anymore before saying “it’s fixed.”
-
There’ve been a few reports of certain game, artist, and song pages turning up blank lately. I’ve encountered them myself and have been investigating these issues over the past few days. While I have an idea of what’s going on, I need some time to figure out a full fix. I appreciate the reports. If you come across any of these, please drop a link in the replies here.
-
1. Format 1. Submissions must be WAV format audio files. Audio must be at least 16-bit, 44.1kHz stereo and will be encoded as a 16-bit, 44.1kHz stereo VBR1 MP3. If you have lost your original project files and cannot provide a WAV of the required quality, please note this in your submission comments. Do not tag or name your file with "OC ReMix", "ocremix.org", etc.; we will do this ourselves if your submission is accepted. 2. We strongly recommend submissions between 2 and 7 minutes in length. Anything longer may delay evaluation. Anything shorter OR longer risks not featuring the original source music prominently & consistently. 3. Submissions must have an original title. Do not name your submission after the source track, the game title, the genre, or yourself. 2. Ownership 1. Your submission must be your own, original arrangement. 2. Only submit works which you yourself participated in the creation of; do not submit on behalf of others. 3. Your submission does not need to be newly or exclusively created for OverClocked ReMix; past arrangements made for other personal, community, or commercial projects are welcome, so long as any previous contracts or terms are not prohibitive. 4. If your submission involves multiple artists, ensure that all artists: Are named in the submission information Agree with the terms of our Content Policy Are credited with the name and profile information they wish to be represented by on OverClocked ReMix 5. If an artist does not wish to be credited in a collaboration, they do not have to be. If they would prefer to be mentioned in the submission writeup instead, please indicate that in the submission information. 3. Acceptable Source Material 1. Submissions can arrange music from any video, computer, or arcade game, with the following qualifications: The music must have actually been used in the game; a bonus track off a commercial game soundtrack does not qualify. The music must have been composed specifically for the game or first published (or recognized) as the game's soundtrack. Movie themes such as Star Wars or licensed songs from games like Gran Turismo do not qualify. Current exceptions: Portions of the Tetris soundtrack, containing Russian folk music and classical music, and portions of the Frogger soundtrack, containing Japanese nursery rhyme music. Sound effects alone are not considered music, and submissions primarily consisting of them will not be accepted. Games that are shareware, freeware, or personal projects may or may not be accepted at our discretion. We strongly recommend arranging music from commercial releases to avoid any problems. 2. Submissions incorporating more than one source are allowed, but are not given special consideration or leniency with regard to the submission standards. Your submission will only be assigned to a single game in our database, regardless of how many games' music it contains. Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together. 3. Any incorporation or arrangement of source material not from games (mainstream, classical, etc.) should be extremely limited. Brief usage of non-VGM sources is acceptable, but mashups and extended sections arranging non-VGM sources are not allowed. Any direct non-VGM source usage must be explicitly mentioned in your submission comments. 4. Arrangement 1. Arrangements in any genre of music (for example: techno, jazz, rap, rock, classical) are acceptable, so long as the genre itself does not conflict with any other arrangement criteria. Submissions must have a primary focus on musical elements; this excludes extensive focus on narration/voiceover (e.g. audio drama, audio books). 2. Your arrangement must be substantial and original. Submissions must be different enough from the source material to clearly illustrate the contributions, modifications, and enhancements you have made. Acceptable arrangement often involves more than one of the following techniques: Modifying the genre, chord progression, instrumentation, rhythms, dynamics, tempo, or overall composition of the source material Adding original solos, transitions, harmonies, counter-melodies, lyrics, or vocals to the source material Taking the original game audio and simply adding drum loops or using an existing MIDI file and assigning new instruments does not qualify as substantial or original arrangement. Submissions must not include any sampled audio, including sound effects, from material owned by Square Enix or its subsidiaries. Submissions should be long enough to convey arrangement; generally, this requires at least two minutes of material. 3. The source material must be identifiable and dominant. While interpretation and original additions are encouraged, arrangement must not modify the source material beyond recognition. The amount of arranged source material must be substantial enough to be recognized. 5. Production 1. Submissions should be cleanly and clearly produced. Recordings should be reasonably free of distortion, hum, clicks, pops, or other unintentional audio artifacts. Volume levels should be normal compared to the average recording. 2. Production must show significant attention to sound quality, mixing, mastering, and utilization of effects. Synthesized and sampled elements must be reasonably sophisticated. General MIDI sounds from low-budget soundcards are not sufficient when superior samples are available online for free. Overusing common presets, relying heavily on prerecorded loops, or employing nothing but basic tones or "chiptunes" is discouraged. Instrumental and vocal performances should be recorded clearly. Performances should be well-executed with regard to tone, pitch, and rhythm. Submissions should be mixed with regard to volume, panning, and effects so that individual elements are clear and an appropriate sense of space is maintained. 6. Evaluation 1. Submissions that do not meet format, ownership, and source material requirements may not be evaluated. 2. Submissions may still be rejected without further evaluation if either arrangement or production requirements have clearly not been met. 3. If all requirements have been met, submissions will be evaluated based equally on arrangement and production criteria, taking into account more subjective factors such as originality, variety, and quality. 4. Submissions will generally be evaluated relative to recently posted ReMixes; ReMixes posted over a year ago may not represent current standards for arrangement and production. 5. Submissions that are revisions or new versions of existing, posted ReMixes will only be evaluated as additions, not as replacements, and must be substantially different. Revisions are not encouraged and may be held to higher standards. 7. Instructions 1. Submit only one submission at a time. Multiple submissions sent together will not be evaluated. 2. Wait two weeks between submissions. You do not need to wait for your previous submissions to be evaluated. Submissions received more frequently than two weeks apart will not be evaluated. Resubmissions that are meaningfully revised after a past rejection can be expedited back to the judges panel at any time. Please include *RESUBMISSION* in your comments, and a link to the previous judges decision. 3. Ensure that submissions are final, polished works: once posted, they cannot be revised. 4. Submit your arrangement using our Submissions form. If you cannot access the form, register a forum account. For anything else (questions, suggestions, etc.), contact us on our Discord server or contact admin@ocremix.org. Please indicate if you have a special request regarding the date or manner in which your submission is posted. 5. Have patience. Check the Currently in the Judging Process page, the Judges Decisions forum, and the homepage to see if your submission was accepted. If you do not see it on the judging queue, contact a judge about it.
-
In the interest of healthy server space utilization, we'll be removing the audio files that get attached to submissions once the decision is complete. For accepted submissions, we'll remove the file after the remix has been posted to the site. For rejected and withdrawn submissions, we'll remove the file immediately after the decision is published. If you provide an external link to a file, we will not remove that link. Submission entries and all of the comments attached to them will remain intact, so you'll still have that history on your Submissions Tracking page. We'll also be going through the existing submissions to remove files. This process will start tonight (6/11) around 11PM ET. If you'd like to save a file before it gets removed, please do so. Thanks. -- DarkeSword
-
Welcome to Game Set Mash!!, a team-based, long-form competition format for the OC ReMix community! Current Status I'm gathering interest here on the forums and in our Discord and I'd like to start in July depending on if we can get some sizable teams. I would love to have around 6-7 people on each team to really get the spirit of collaboration going. What are the games we're remixing? The time around we're celebrating the music of Yuzo Koshiro! This legendary composer has such a wide breadth of work, and for GSM3 we're going to mix the pulsing beat 'em up beats of Streets of Rage with the sweeping JRPG scores from Etrian Odyssey. Streets of Rage - Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, and Streets of Rage 3 Etrian Odyssey - Etrian Odyssey, Etrian Odyssey 2, Etrian Odyssey 3 Each franchise features more games than just the initial three, but for the purposes of this competition we're going to limit to those first games. What are the rules about teams? I want to make things easy and accessible for people to participate, so there's no maximum on team size, but I'll be asking people to do their best to even out the teams once we have all of our participants signed up. There are no rules about who has to be a primary arranger for a track from week to week. Teams will be free to organize and determine how each of the three remixes gets covered. Using your teammates for collaboration and feedback is highly encouraged. Game Set Mash!! is run primarily on OCR's Discord server, so you need to make sure you join up there. I'm new to GSM, how does the competition work? Participating remixers will form 2 teams of at least 3 members each. Each team will be assigned a set of 3 games. The competition lasts 6-7 weeks, with 10-day mixing rounds alternating with 4-day voting periods. At the start of the mixing round, each team will choose and reveal 1 source tune from each of their 3 games. Each source will be paired with another source from the opposing team, for a total of 3 pairs. Each team will be responsible for writing 3 remixes for the week that combine (or mash) both source tunes in each pair. At the end of the mixing round, we'll upload the remixes and have a community vote. Voters will vote on the 3 remixes that did the best job of mashing the two source tunes together. Teams will accumulate a score based on how many of the community votes they win. In the next mixing round, we'll rotate which games get paired up with opposing games.
-
Killer track but needs more variation in the back third. NO
-
Due to a recent server migration, there have been some issues with incomplete uploads on our Submissions Form. I've made the following changes to the form to work around this issue while I continue to investigate the root problem. Changed Audio File to be an optional field. Added External Link for Audio File as a new optional field. You can now choose to host your submission file externally. -- 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
-
Super Smash TV - Circuit 1 remix
DarkeSword replied to CmacProduction's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
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.