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Everything posted by DarkeSword
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OCR03528 - *YES* Final Fantasy 7 "Vincent's Longing"
DarkeSword replied to Chimpazilla's topic in Judges Decisions
I feel like the arranging and part-writing certainly makes up for the production issues. Oboe feels a little exposed, but that's a nitpick for me. I think this is lovely. Very mysterious. I'm on board. YES -
One thing I notice people getting overthinking in the compos is figuring out the keys of the tracks they have to arrange together. In my opinion (as the guy that conceived the source-versus-source style compo), figuring out the actual key is far less important than figuring out the mode, regardless of what the tonic is. It doesn't matter if one of the sources is in Bb Minor and the other is in F Minor. The Bb and the F don't matter. What matters is that the two tracks are in the Aeolian mode (aka natural minor). When the mode is common, it's incredibly easy to make the sources work together with each other, you just transpose the material from the sources (melody, chord progression, etc.) into a common key, like C minor or something. It gets tougher when you have something like Ionian (aka major scale, e.g. C major) and Aeolian (e.g. D minor) sources being combined. Now you have to think about how you want to push them together. Do you flat the third, sixth, and sevenths of the Ionian source's melody so that it's Aeolian now (i.e. play a C major song in C minor) and then transpose to a common key? Do you keep the Ionian source Ionian (e.g. C major) and shift the tonic of the Aeolian source down to the relative minor (i.e. A minor)? These are options and techniques you can use to push two different sources together and keep them from clashing. Remember, you can write an arrangement in any key you want. A song can be played with any note as the tonic. Think about the classic Star Wars melody: G, D, C B A G, D Except you shouldn't think of it that way. You should think of it as: 1, 5, 4 3 2 8, 5 Where 1 is any of the twelve notes. C, G, F E D C, G Bb, F, Eb D C, Bb, F You see what I'm getting at? Worry less about the tonic and more about the intervals and relationships between the notes and where they fall in the scale. When you start thinking about melodies and chords that way, one of the barriers to doing multi-source arrangements disappears.
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If you want to write a remix for OCR, I suggest not using a MIDI, because here's the thing: that's not your work. The transcription and sequencing was done by someone else. Plus by using the MIDI, you're essentially circumventing the entire sequencing process. There's a lot more to sequencing than the notes; there's velocity, timing, and everything that goes into creating expressive lines. If you want to be a composer/arranger, you have to train your ear. You have to get better at figuring things out by listening to them. The way to do this is to practice. Ear training is incredibly important. How are you supposed to write anything original if you can't translate what you hear in your head to your DAW? If you use an existing MIDI, are we gonna know? Maybe, maybe not. We've figured it out before. I've always been a proponent of ear training and doing things by ear. MIDIs are a helpful tool when you're starting out but they quickly become shortcuts, crutches, and ultimately hinderances to your artistic growth.
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NOTICE: Forums upgraded to IPS 4.1.X (report issues)
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Site Issues & Feedback
Line-wrapping? Screenshot? -
OCR03360 - *YES* Sonic Adventure 2 'Chao Cave Rave'
DarkeSword replied to Chimpazilla's topic in Judges Decisions
Nice embellishments on what's a pretty simple/sparse source. Feels like a Sonic version of what we did with Super Cartography Bros. No problems here. I'm bumpin'. YES -
They added romhack support to Workshop. This is insane.
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The Next Final Fantasy OC ReMix Album is...
DarkeSword replied to jarien21's topic in ReMix Requests
3 and 8 are already happening. -
I'm not up to date on it but I like it. I like the return to funnier characters. The western version of DBZ took itself way too seriously. DBS is comfort food. Not particularly great but evokes enough nostalgia for me. Don't like that they're cutting corners on the animation though. Maybe Blurays will see improvements.
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I wouldn't mind it (I've done multiple tracks, as has Sixto) but I want to see what kind of talent we can grab. Obviously the Eight Arms gives more people opportunities. Although...I just had a thought. Battle on the Big Bridge is often covered as rock, but I wonder if we can tap @Damashii!! and some other folks and do a rock-rap hybrid. Might be a little bit more unique; a Hip Hop vs. Metal battle.
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Alright folks, time to get started on FIRE. Here are the classes and characters we're looking at: Faris The reckless and courageous pirate captain. Source: Pirates Ahoy! Gilgamesh The eight-armed sword hunter. Source: Battle on the Big Bridge Proposal: an eight-member rock super-group called "The Eight Arms of Gilgamesh" collaborating to create a denser, more varied take on the source. Beastmaster "Trainers whose open hearts and strong wills allow them to capture and control enemy monsters." Musical style: aggressive. Geomancer "Harnessing the power of their surroundings, they easily avoid pits and floors with damaging effects." Musical style: heavy and rhythmic. Ninja "Stealthy fighters who excel at surprising enemies and can wield two weapons at once." Musical style: fast and mysterious. Bard "Musicians whose dulcet tones soothe savage beasts...or kill them." Musical style: melodic and lyrical. This track has been assigned to RiverSound. Ranger "Nature-loving archers who can call on local wildlife for aid." Musical style: adventurous. As always, for each track, I need a proven artist who can write a remix that embodies the character or job. We can talk about what kind of music would fit each character class. I've included some notes as to what I have in mind for styles. I really want to do the "The Eight Arms of Gilgamesh" super-group for the Battle on the Big Bridge theme too.
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Well, here it is, at long last. Kind of unbelievable that this is finally coming out. So why’d this thing take so long? What happened? Well, a lot happened, actually. I bought a house and moved out of my parents’ place. I started taking on more stuff at work. OCR got involved with the fighting game community and I started directing albums for tournaments. I started running my own remixing tournaments on OCR for series like Mega Man, and, speaking of Mega Man, I even worked with Capcom to direct OCR’s first commercial album. But with all this stuff going on, I also hit roadblocks creatively as a musician. I was still putting out tracks for the FGC albums, but I wanted my Mystic Knight track on this album to be something really great and bigger than what I’d done before. So I put things off until I could find time, and when I found time I couldn’t make it work creatively, and then I’d get busy again. Finally, it just got to be too much, and I said “I need to be able to tell people at MAGFest that it’s done.” So I sat down and, for a few nights in the week leading up to MAGFest, I pushed through all the creative roadblocks and finally got the track out. But of course, this album series is way more than my dumb track that took way too long to write. It’s filled with awesome music from a really talented bunch of guys. I’m grateful that they’ve been so patient with me, and I’m happy that you’re all going to finally hear their awesome arrangements. Now that WATER is finally out, we’re going to move on to putting together Volume III: FIRE. I’ve got big plans, and while it would be irresponsible of me to promise a release date, I will say that after everything I’ve learned about running all these albums over the years, things are going to move along at a better pace. Keep an eye out, and in the meantime, enjoy The Fabled Warriors: Volume II: WATER. Download it: http://ff5.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/Final_Fantasy_V_-_The_Fabled_Warriors_~II.WATER~.torrent Listen on Soundcloud: Trailer:
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A fire is lit within me, and I have decided to extend this series beyond five albums. Here are the names of the additional entries to the series: Volume VI: You said it was going to be five Volume VII: This isn't even Final Fantasy, these are Guardian Legend ReMixes Volume VIII: Okay this one is just a picture of a potato salad? Volume IX: Wind Again, but with new artwork, and an audio forward from Darkesword Volume XI: Wait what happened to X? Volume XII: Volume X Volume XIII: More Final Fantasy V ReMixes because we actually do like that game Volume XIII-2 Lightning Returns: Volume XIII Now accepting sign ups for Lightning Returns: Volume XIII.
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Not the thread for this discussion dudes.
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Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation 2016
DarkeSword replied to MindWanderer's topic in Competitions
You could do what we did at the end of one of the Mega Man compos and collaborate on one single remix to close things out. Make it so that Simon and Dracula are locked in an endless battle for all eternity. -
I play Threes a LOT. This remix is awesome. Really cool electronic take on the jazzier source. Syncopation is KILLER. YES
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Go to your Sony account at https://account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/ and disconnect all your devices from your account in the devices section. Then change your password. Then reactivate your PS4 on your account again. Also, please refrain from tossing around political jabs. This isn't PPR.
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In the interest of making the forums easier to sign up for and more accessible to everyone, we've made some changes to registration. In the past, we've had it so that new accounts had to be manually vetted and activated; this was to avoid spam accounts and the like. This worked, but a side-effect was that new members couldn't engage in the community immediately and would become discouraged from participating. To move forward, we've done the following things: Updated our manual registration form to use the latest reCAPTCHA. This is to help fight spam accounts. Removed administrator approval from the registration process. New members will be able to post immediately following email verification. Enabled new members to register using their social media accounts. New members can now use Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ to register. If you're already registered for the forums, you can link your existing forum account to any/all of your social media accounts by going to your Account Settings and clicking the relevant links. Once you do so, you'll be able to use your social media account to sign-in, as opposed to a traditional username/password sign-in. If you have any friends who are interested in OC ReMix but haven't joined the forums, get 'em over here and get 'em involved! Between album projects, competitions, and gaming discussions, there's a lot to do here. If you run into any registration or account linking issues, please let us know right here in this thread. Thanks!
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OC ReMix releases FF5: Fabled Warriors Vol. II - "WATER"
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in General Discussion
Right now? In prep for release. It's being tagged, director comments are being written up, and Jose is working on a trailer. -
Hey folks. Sorry for the false alarm earlier today with the April Fool's joke. Some people seem to be assuming that because we did a joke today about the album, this entire month of my saying that the album is done was just a lead up to the joke. If you know me and my opinions about April Fool's Day, you know that I have very strong opinions about doing any part of an A1 joke outside of April 1st. Rest assured, Water is done in terms of both music and album art. Speaking of album art, take a look at what we've got cooked up! And here's the tracklist! I've been working with @rnn who's our wonderfully talented album artist for For Everlasting Peace, Super Cartogrpahy Bros., and Apex 2015: This is the Moment, to completely revamp the visual look for The Fabled Warriors. Volume 2 is going to be a stepping off point for this series in terms of art. After Water is released, we're going to go back and redo the album art for Wind to match this new style; it'll feature Bartz on the cover against a "windy" backdrop and a wind-inspired circular pattern. The next three albums (Fire, Earth, and Dawn) will feature Faris, Galuf, and Krile. I want to thank @Otakatt and @Monobrow for their help with the original album art for Wind all those years ago. I had a specific idea for the series back then and we executed on it really well. But given some distance, I've decided I want to change up the look of the series and make things consistent throughout. I'm pretty excited. Anyway look for the real release of Water in the coming weeks. It's all coming together. All that's really left is some preparation stuff on OCR staff's side; trailer, comments, etc. Thanks for being patient.
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If you've got a lot of friends on it it's pretty fun though.
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That's fine.