DarkeSword

I have 11 names so far. Still some time to sign up!

No I'm a huge fan of Metroid Prime's soundtracks.

Well I mean he wrote them for a game that's being made. He's just not using the SNES versions anymore. Americana Dawn is still under development, and I imagine Sam's going to write new versions for the actual release.

Of course. I often go back to Civilized Folk when I need something chill to listen to. I shared the album with my Dad years ago when it came out and he also bought it off Bandcamp. Have listened to the SNES versions for the past 20 minutes or so. Really loving it.

Oh man I love the Americana Dawn album you released years ago. Reminded me so much of Hamauzu's SaGa Frontier II (which, if you know anything about me, is very high praise). Definitely going to check this out. Will we be able to purchase this version?

No no no, don't skip it. Evaluate it for yourself. There's just me and Pete badmouthing it, and even I'm only doing it tongue-in-cheek. I do like parts of that game. It's worth giving a shot.

It's tedious and bleak. At least the soundtrack is good.

There are nine people on each team. Each team will be given about 11-12 sources they can choose from and assign to their nine members.

Is this a recruitment thread?

Belongs in PYGR.

Incredibly exposed and mechanical. It doesn't sound like any part-writing went into this. Everything sounds like it was on auto-pilot. Like Nuts said, there's no interplay between parts. What's going on in this track? What is even the melody? It's sort of just meandering all over the place. Needs to go back to the drawing board. NO

That piano is SUPER mechanical. Not sure how I feel about it. It doesn't sound like it's trying to be real but it's so exposed. I like what you're trying to do here, but I think Larry and Kris are right. Guitar sounds great but there's weird balance issues. Some of the synths get a bit messy and piercing. Needs another look. NO

Already known among staff, but I suppose if we're publicly stating it, here it is. I am obviously fine with my remix videos having ads on them.

Done.

I'm going to close this thread up. A spirited discussion to be sure, but @djpretzel indicated what the next steps are going to be for OCR with regards to shifting ads over to YouTube. I don't think it's healthy for us to sit around and do a post-mortem of the arguments/discussion. Let's get back to talking about video games, music, and video game music.

Yeah, pretty much. Depending on how you work it out with your team you'll be on the hook for anywhere from 3-5 remixes: 2 squad-vs-squad remixes will be MM vs. SK 1 final one-on-one remix will be MM vs. SK 1 boss battle mix will be your source vs. a Mega Man based boss theme 1 boss battle mix will be your source vs. a Shovel Knight based boss theme The blue items are the ones you're definitely responsible for. The purple items will be handled by one person per squad.

Keep in mind, because of the way this competition is set up, nearly all of the remixes you write with include a Mega Man source and a Shovel Knight source. Being on the Robots team won't mean you'll only be remixing Mega Man tunes, and the same goes for the Knights team with Shovel Knight tunes.

I had NES, Sega Genesis, a Game Gear, and a lot of shareware games for MS-DOS. I'm good.

Weird thing about Metroid: I never considered myself a Metroid fan growing up. I missed Metroid, Metroid II, and Super Metroid as a kid (no Gameboy or SNES). But I eventually got around to checking out Zero Mission, the Metroid Prime series, and Fusion. Really like the series, and I have a bunch of Metroid remixes here on OCR. I love the series, but I still don't really consider myself a huge fan of Metroid; not in the same way that I was a fan of Sonic or Mega Man or even Kirby. For me it's always been "oh yeah, I played that game, it was pretty awesome. Samus is cool." But beyond maybe the Prime games, I have very little nostalgic investment in the Metroid series at large. I did check out AM2R last night. Pretty solid stuff.

Hey guys; posted a callout for help with visual identity and branding for RvK over on my tumblr. Quoting here: As many of you know, I have pretty high standards for artwork on my projects (albums and competitions). I'm looking for someone with a very strong sense of good design. This is more than just a "draw some pictures" gig.

@HoboKa This is not a generic Metroid thread. Please stay on topic.

Hey everyone, glad to see people are excited about the compo, even if they won't be able to participate. I've updated the first post with more details about the competition. The format remains unchanged, but I've added a FAQ section that details some of the philosophy behind the format and the approach to collaboration this year.

Two things: first, you're severely underestimating the amount of work involved in obtaining licensing for the entire catalog of OC ReMix. We have nearly 1000 games represented in the catalog of individually posted remixes. We're well aware of Loudr and what they do, and even relying on an external service would still require too much work to obtain licensing for every last remix. This is not a "moderate amount of effort." Second, and more importantly: stop invoking the site's mission to make your case. Here's our mission: Appreciate and honor video game composers and their music Encourage artistic expression and development through fan arrangements Preserve and promote video game music of the past and present Provide resources and connections for the game composers of tomorrow Distribute great, free music to the world The last point seems to be what you're hung up on. But here's the thing: We provide free direct and torrent downloads of all of our music. We have every individual ReMix posted in full to our YouTube channel (~112K subscribers). We post all of our albums to Soundcloud (~7K Followers) We promote all of our music on Twitter (~28K Followers) and Facebook (~53K Likes). We go to conventions and events throughout the year (upcoming: Otakon next weekend, PAX West and MAGLabs in Sept, etc.) to do panels and give out CDs. We're doing a great job of staying true to our mission. Would Spotify be a nice way to capture more listeners? Sure. But don't pretend for a second that not having the music on Spotify means we aren't doing our job. This is not about us doing our job well, this is about your convenience. This thread was made 6 years ago. We didn't forget about Spotify. We're not ignorant of the modern streaming landscape and how it's evolved over the years. We've evaluated these venues and made the determination that it's not worth pursuing. There are better uses of our limited time; time that, by the way, none of us are compensated for.

Alright guys, first post updated with a rundown of the format.

Introduction Past and future collide as two factions clash in the greatest musical battle the world has ever seen. Armored heroes meet metal warriors on the battlefield of wailing guitars, dirty drops, and soaring strings. Get ready, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for Robots vs. Knights! Current News MUSIC FOR THE FINAL BATTLE IS UP! Round 9: One vs. One Final Battle Team Robot Team Knight Squad Artist Source vs Source Artist Squad Rush Squad Gario Ballade vs Wandering Travelers JohnStacy Armor Squad Rush Squad Starpheonix Enker vs Shield Knight GCJ Armor Squad Rush Squad Thirdkoopa Mercury vs Shovel Knight Jorito Relic Squad Tango Squad Chiwalker Uranus vs Polar Knight theshaggyfreak Shovel Squad Tango Squad Yami Pluto vs Plague Knight akalink Armor Squad Tango Squad Ronald Poe Mars vs Propeller Knight Anorax Shovel Squad Beat Squad Trism Saturn vs Spectre Knight PlanarianHugger Shovel Squad Beat Squad Xenonetix Punk vs King Knight Dewey Newt Relic Squad Beat Squad MegaDrive Venus vs Mole Knight Arrow Relic Squad Remixes are due Sunday, June 18th at 9 PM EDT. All competitors will compose and produce remixes that combine both sources into one, cohesive piece of music. Collaboration with teammates is allowed, but the primary artists should be the competitors listed in the table above. All competitors are encouraged (but not required) to share WIPs with teammates in order to get constructive feedback. Good luck and happy mixing. A lot of team discussion is happening on the OC ReMix Discord, be sure to make yourselves available. As always, all participants (competitors and voters) are expected to adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. Scoreboard Battle Team Knight Team Robot Ballade vs Shovel Knight 2 0 Uranus vs Propeller Knight 0 2 Saturn vs Plague Knight 2 0 Enker vs Polar Knight 0 2 Pluto vs King Knight 0 2 Punk vs Shield Knight 2 0 Mercury vs Spectre Knight 0 2 Mars vs Mole Knight 0 0 Venus vs Wandering Travelers 0 2 Boss Battle vs Tinker Knight 0 9 Total 6 19 Teams Team Knight Artist Source Squad Anorax Propeller Knight Shovel Squad theshaggyfreak Polar Knight Shovel Squad PlanarianHugger Spectre Knight Shovel Squad akalink Plague Knight Armor Squad GCJ Shield Knight Armor Squad JohnStacy Wandering Travelers Armor Squad Jorito Shovel Knight Relic Squad Dewey Newt King Knight Relic Squad Arrow Mole Knight Relic Squad Team Robot Artist Source Squad Gario Ballade Rush Squad Starpheonix Enker Rush Squad Thirdkoopa Mercury Rush Squad Chiwalker Uranus Tango Squad Yami Pluto Tango Squad Ronald Poe Mars Tango Squad Trism Saturn Beat Squad Xenonetix Punk Beat Squad MegaDrive Venus Beat Squad Releases Round 1: Squad vs. Squad Block 1 Round 2: Squad vs. Squad Block 1 Round 3: Squad vs. Squad Block 1 Round 4: Boss Battle 1 Rounds 5-8: Block 2 Round 9: One vs. One Final Battle About Robots vs. Knights (RvK) is a Team vs. Team competition. It’s a new format that I’ve been developing for a couple of months now, combining elements of the head-to-head battles of the Remix Battle tournaments (GRMRB, etc.) with the teamwork aspect of Gauntlet tournaments (WCRG, etc.). Here’s the full breakdown of how it’s going to work. Sign-ups 18 people sign up. I’ll divide everyone into 2 teams of 9. I’ll be assigning people to their respective teams in order to ensure a balanced competition. Each team will be given a pool of sources to select from. Team members will decide how to assign sources themselves. I won’t be running a draft. Team Robots will be given a selection of sources from the Mega Man Game Boy games. Team Knights will be given a selection of sources from Shovel Knight. Each team will form 3 squads of 3 members each. The squad will be your group that you’ll rotate with throughout the competition, similar to the teams from gauntlet competitions. Squad-vs-Squad Battle 1 The first 3 rounds are squad-vs-squad battles. Each squad will decide their remixing order for the first three rounds and provide that to me. Each round, I’ll post 3 match-ups between squads on opposing teams. Each squad’s artist will submit a remix that uses their selected source and the opposing squad’s selected source. At the end of each round, artists send their remixes to me, I’ll put the tracks up, and people will vote. Each victory will earn points for the team. Boss Battle 1 The 4th round is a boss battle. I’ll post a boss theme source. All 6 squads will submit a remix that combines the boss theme with one of the squad’s sources. Any member of the squad can be the primary artist. The primary artist is not required to use their own personal source; they can use any of their squad’s 3 sources. At the end of the round, voters will select their 3 favorite remixes, unranked. The team that has the most selections at the end of the voting period will choose between two rewards: a chunk of points, or the right to counterpick in the next block of squad-vs-squad battles. Break 1 While votes are being collected for Boss Battle 1, we will take a week-long break, using the time to review remixes from past rounds. Squad-vs-Squad Battle 2 The next 3 rounds are squad-vs-squad battles. If a team has the right to counterpick, they’ll be provided the opposing team’s remixing orders first before determining their remixing orders. I will still determine the actual match-ups based on the updated remixing orders. The 3 rounds of squad-vs-squad battles are conducted as before. Boss Battle 2 The 8th round is another boss battle, conducted in the same way as the previous boss battle round. Break 2 While votes are being collected for Boss Battle 2, we will take a week-long break, using the time to review remixes from past rounds. One-vs-One Battle The 9th and final round is comprised of 9 one-on-one battles. If a team has earned the right to counterpick from the previous round, they’ll be allowed to determine the 9 match-ups; rematches of previous battles from the squad-vs-squad blocks are not allowed. If no team has counterpick, I’ll determine the match-ups. Each artist will be responsible for writing a remix that uses their selected source and their opponent’s source. At the end of the round, remixes will be submitted and voted on. The team with the most victories will earn a large chunk of points. The team with the most points at the end of the competition wins. Submissions and File Name Rules Submission All entries must be sent to me (DarkeSword) via PM on the forums. Please include your team name, squad name, and the round number in the subject line of your PM. I encode all MP3s myself, so please send me your submissions in 16bit, 44.1KHz WAV format. Don’t send MP3s. Please do not use MediaFire, RapidShare, or any other ad-ridden public sharing site as a host for your entry. There are many better options you can and should be using to host your music. I recommend Dropbox or SoundCloud. Make sure your files are downloadable. File Names If you worked on the remix without the help of your teammates: Team Robots - DarkeSword - Be Cool, Man (Ice Man vs. Polar Knight).wav If one team member helps you with your entry in a significant way and you want to give them credit, add their name as follows: Team Robots - DarkeSword feat. Neblix - Be Cool, Man (Ice Man vs. Polar Knight).wav If more than one team members help you with your entry in a significant way and you want to give them credit, add their names as follows: Team Robots - DarkeSword feat. Neblix, Liontamer - Be Cool, Man (Ice Man vs. Polar Knight).wav Notes Make sure you’re using proper capitalization for team names and character names. Put spaces on both sides of the hyphens between Team Name, Artist, and Title. If your remix’s title has special punctuation that you can’t include in the file name (e.g. \ / : \* ? " < > |), please let me know in your submission PM so I can include the correct title in the tags. Please follow the file name format exactly; I use the file names to make sure that all the metadata is correct when I tag the MP3s. It’s a massive pain sitting there renaming, re-spacing, and reformatting so that everything works properly with mp3tag’s file-name-to-tag tools, and ultimately it means that when you all do it right, I can get the music up for voting way faster. Voting Rules and Guidelines Voting is conducted publicly in the Public Voting forum. Every week, a thread will be created for the most recently completed round of remixing. Because RvK has two different types of rounds (squad-vs-squad and boss battle), please make sure you read and follow the instructions in the voting thread. Things to keep in mind when voting: The most important thing to consider when voting is how well the remix incorporates and arranges both themes. Production and enjoyability should also be considered, but this is primarily an arrangement competition. Everyone is allowed (and encouraged) to vote, including competitors. Everyone must adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. FAQ This is pretty interesting, but why are you doing this instead of just another Tournament or Gauntlet? The philosophy behind RvK is to create an environment where more artists will be working together to help and learn from each other. I want to tap into the spirit of teamwork and collaboration in a bigger way this tournament. Rather than just having two friends working on tracks with you week to week, you’ll have eight other teammates that you can use as resources. What do you mean by resources? In the past, I’ve tried to limit the amount of collaboration allowed in competitions because I wanted to make sure that people were putting forth a concerted effort to grow as artists on their own. While we’ll still be adhering to the idea of a Primary Artist for each remix in RvK, some of the limitations will be relaxed. Artists will be able to get help from all 8 of their teammates. This includes production help, session instruments, and arrangement feedback. The Primary Artist will still be responsible for the bulk of the work that goes into a remix, but they’ll have a lot more help in getting that remix polished up. How many remixes do I have to write? You will be responsible for at least 3 remixes: 2 remixes from the squad-vs-squad battles, and 1 remix in the final battle. You may also be responsible for any of the boss battle remixes, but that will be up to your team. Why can’t we choose our own teams? I’m going to determine the teams based on skill level in order to ensure fairness across the board. I want both teams to have a healthy balance between novices and veterans. Do we get to pick team names or squad names? No. The two teams will be known as Team Robots and Team Knights. I will also be setting the squad names which will be revealed once we get the competition started. I really want to be on Team Robots/Team Knights! Can you put me on that team? I’ll consider your preference but I can’t guarantee anything. Notes Stardroid sprites used in Team Robot sigs were colorized by onyx801.