DarkeSword

I thought about this for a while, and I've decided that this piece does not fall under the Figaro Precedent. If my understanding of the Figaro Precedent is correct, we shouldn't be accepting mixes that intentionally limit themselves to outdated sound hardware and use that limitation as an excuse. Where is that in this mix? There is no hardware that this particular piece is limited to. Mazedude didn't intentionally set out to write a hardware-perfect C64 tune, or whatever it is. The fact that he is, quite-creatively, using chiptune sounds, should not be the reason that this piece should be rejected. There's filtering, there's panning, signal-processing, etc. The texture is grungy and old-school, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's full, and the balance is right. The sounds work together. There's synergy (my word of the day). There's a lot of arrangement going on to make a forgettable orignal piece a bit more substansive. I agree with Gray that we should not simply disregard precendents when we set them, but I also agree with Larry that we should not hastily apply them. YES

Yeah, definitely old school DarkeSword drums. Boomhiss ftw (). Anyway, I've got to agree that this sounds pretty basic in terms of sound design. It can't decide if it's going for that old-school analog sound or some trancier stuff. Nice lead, but I think the percussion and bass need more synergy. They feel independant of each other, rather than working together to establish the pulse. Development is pretty flat-line throughout the whole song too. Needs more highs and lows; breakout of the generic trance. NO

Yeah I gotta agree. Leads sound dry, especially that flute. It sounds terrible when its soloing. No kind of humanization involved at all; pretty poor sequencing. Doubling it with the weak-attack strings is also a no-no. Guitar playing isn't bad, but this whole thing needs more stuff going on in the back. Some strong harmonic support. NO

Yeah that's the plan. We need to decide if people will be allowed to reply to these threads in order to discuss the mascots though. Also, I think it'd be cool if you included "related remixes," such as a link to any related game's OCR page. So for the Azel bio, you could put the link for the Panzer Dragoon games' remix database entries: http://www.ocremix.org/game/162/ http://www.ocremix.org/game/354/ That way if someone sees a character that they don't know and read their bio, they can possibly discover new music as well. I just realized that you're already doing this. I LOSE

Yeah that's the plan. We need to decide if people will be allowed to reply to these threads in order to discuss the mascots though. Also, I think it'd be cool if you included "related remixes," such as a link to any related game's OCR page. So for the Azel bio, you could put the link for the Panzer Dragoon games' remix database entries: http://www.ocremix.org/game/162/ http://www.ocremix.org/game/354/ That way if someone sees a character that they don't know and read their bio, they can possibly discover new music as well.

Every song I have posted on OCR was made with FLStudio.

It's not a xylophone. It's a synth glass lead. It's supposed to sound fake.

He wasn't talking about you. Don't post in this thread again.

Will send a WIP tonight. Haven't been working a lot on it, but I tweaked some stuff last night; bassline issues and balancing. Still needs more compositions though.

There's nothing wrong with taking endeavors that help to promote OCR seriously. VGDJ is one of those endeavors.

Maybe it's because, whether you like it or not, Pixietricks has been a part of VGDJ for a long time. Can she start her own show? Sure. But here's the thing. VGDJ is the official podcast of OCR. That's why it's stickied and has been spotlighted numerous times. Pixietricks, who has been a part of VGDJ since the very early weeks when she stepped in for Aurora, needs information from the people who have information in order to continue VGDJ, OCR's Official Podcast. You don't enjoy VGDJ with Pixietricks hosting it. We know that. You've said it numerous times. We get it. So just quit your complaining and spend your time doing something constructive.

Quit being an ass. Nobody said it'd be the end of the world. It would, however, be the end of VGDJ, which is a podcast that a lot of people listen to, and helps promote OCR. You've already made it very clear that you don't like VGDJ in its current incarnation with its current host. Making a post like that is just a bait. Quit posting in this thread if you're not going to be constructive.

Moved to Site Projects. Why isn't this done yet?!?!

NO, resubmit. The song is great, but the vocals are too far in the back. That really ruins it, because the performance is pretty good. The rapping reminds me of SOUL'd OUT or Orange Range's spoken word stuff. Nice. Please bring the vocals out. We could probably just fast track this.

Oh please, the samples sound fine. The production on this is pretty damn nice man. Good sound, nice woodwind samples. I love that clarinet. As far as the arrangement goes, I'm in agreement. It's a nice adaptation, but you need to bring more originalty to the song. The stuff you added in the background is great, but I'd like to see more of it. Try passing the melody around; give it to that clarinet! NO (resub plz)

Hey genius, read the rules for posting in Site Projects. What about "Don't insult people/curse people off"? All I'm saying is that there are nicer ways to tell people that they've broken a rule, without making them feel like an idiot. The community is supposed to be excited, that's the whole point in the project - you can't be angry that some people are a little, say, over-enthusiastic. Alright, I was out of line with the genius comment. I take it back and apologize. But seriously, asking when the project is coming out doesn't make the project come out any faster, and to be honest, there's no reason that people need to know a release date. It's not something you plan your life around. It'll be out when it's out, end of story. That's why I wrote the rules.

Hey genius, read the rules for posting in Site Projects.

Moving to WIP for the time being. Since djp is heavily involved with the organization of the proj, this may go to the SP forum earlier than normal, but for now, I'm going to follow my MO.

You know what? I really like this. I love that lead at 1:19; one of my favorite kinds of sounds, and everything going on behind it really ramps up the energy. I don't have that many technical issues with this song. It sounds clean enough, and the piano and guitar really add some nice color to the synthy stuff. Nice arrangement, nice sounds, nice work all around. YES

Vig pretty much summed it up. No attention paid to balance here at all. I don't think you really understand what's going on musically in this song, and just tried to come up with a few sounds to apply to the material. Dig in deeper, understand the melodies and harmonies, and write. Don't just slap some sounds on the channels and call it a remix. NO

Trained ear? More like the ears of self-proclaimed 'audiophiles.' I would think that it'd be the remixers themselves who actually have the 'trained ears.' In any case, if you think it's a pity that there's no topic explaining how to properly encode MP3s, feel free to make one. You seem to know a bit about the subject, and it's better to contribute than to complain.

Way to abuse power. I'm totally going to report you and have DarkeSword close your project, dude. Or I could just revoke his powers.

I've thought long and hard about this mix and I'm going to vote NO, as well as ask djpretzel for a policy clarification as to chiptunes of this nature. First, let me say that the arrangement in this mix is very good. Lots of great interpretation harmonically and rhythmically. The whole thing is a really enjoyable listen. The problem here is that with OCRs, we're striving for sound quality in terms of texture and design. Don't get me wrong; I love NES chiptunes, and listen to them on a regular basis, and I can certainly appreciate the texture of squares, triangles, and noise working in tandem. However, I think that OCR strives to elevate what we listen to beyond the simple textures of yesterdecade. An arrangement like this is, from a certain POV, limited by the bounds of the NES sound, and I believe that it could be better with some creative effects and signal processing. The arrangement, as I said, is great, but sometimes it seems like Sam is trying to compensate for the lack of more complex sound design by tricking out the arrangement as much as possible. Overcompensation? Perhaps. Does it matter? Probably not; I just judge the end product, but I think it bears mentioning that this could be on the very opposite extreme of a MIDI-rip; instead of trying to compensate for lack of arrangement with killer sound design, the simple sound design is compensated with killer arrangement. Ultimately though, I think that a pure NES chiptune, while fantastic and enjoyable in its own right, doesn't really match up to what we're looking for at OCR.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

I didn't know people still read that.