DarkeSword

Now that the first round is complete and voting is underway, I'd like to remind everyone to review and adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. Keep the CCC in mind when you're discussing, reviewing, and voting on this week's remixes. To answer a question that was posted earlier, yes, Google Drive is fine for providing me with your mix. I apologize for not posting what to put for the gauntlet theme this week. I'll do that earlier this week. I also want to thank everyone for adhering to submission and voting standards thusfar. There have been no bad file names, no 48kHz 24 bit WAV files, everyone is using the right format in the voting threads, etc. So far so good; let's keep things rolling smoothly for the rest of the competition!

Quick clarification on votes guys: ONLY include the titles of the mixes as bullet points; don't prefix them with numbers. This is correct: Name First Choice Second Choice Third Choice This is NOT correct: Name 1) First choice 2) Second Choice 3) Third Choice This is VERY IMPORTANT.

The Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet (Main Competition Thread) Voting for round 1 is now open, and will end on Saturday, August 8, at 6PM EDT. Download Round 1 remixes: Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet - Round 1 (Palace Grounds [X]) Sources Gauntlet Theme: Mega Man X - Palace Grounds Maverick Themes: SFRG 2015 Competitor Playlist (Compiled by NovaReaper) Remix Titles: Wanderforce (Gravity Antonion in Palace Ground [X]) Magma Flow (Magma Dragoon in Palace Ground [X]) Rolling (Frost Walrus in Palace Ground [X]) Smoothlike fellow (Mattrex in Palace Ground [X]) My Beerly Beerloved (Blizzard Buffalo in Palace Ground [X]) Electric Moves & Cephalopod Grooves (Volt Kraken in Palace Ground [X]) Toxic Seas (Toxic Seahorse in Palace Ground [X]) Firefly (Shining Hotarunicus in Palace Ground [X]) Hidden in the Palace Grounds (Sting Chameleon in Palace Ground [X]) Bounce Too High (Vanishing Gungaroo in Palace Ground [X]) Sigmandrill Palace (Spark Mandrill in Palace Ground [X]) Voters, post your top three remixes in this thread as follows. Your name First place choice remix name Second place choice remix name Third place choice remix name Please use the forum's bulleted list feature, as shown above, and please do not "creatively misspell" remix names; copy the remix titles from the list above to avoid any mistakes. Do not include NUMBERS in your list, i.e. your first choice should be "Remix Title," not "1) Remix Title." This is really important, because it'll help me plug your votes into my tallying spreadsheet without a lot of hassle. Voting in the proper format will help expedite the tallies being done. Thank you! 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. The sources have been linked above for your reference. Everyone is allowed (and encouraged) to vote, including competitors. Competitors should not place their own team's remix in their rankings, regardless of whether they are the remixers for that round or not. However, by voting, they will earn a first place vote for their team's remix. If you are on a team, you must post what team you are on in your vote so I can make sure your team gets your voting bonus. If you do not specify your team, I cannot guarantee that your team will receive a voting bonus. You are required to make an actual decision for each choice, meaning, you cannot declare a draws or a ties for different places. This will be counted as not voting and your vote will not be counted. Do not post reviews in the voting thread. Compile your reviews for each round into a single post in the main competition thread. Post only once in each voting thread. Everyone must adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct.

Round 1 music is available in the first post. Alright, please pardon my language for this post. HOLY FUCKING SHIT YOU GUYS THIS MUSIC IS AMAZING Okay now that that's out of the way: voting for round 1 is open. For everyone participating as a voter, PLEASE read the entire first post of the voting thread before posting your vote! Some things have changed, especially with regards to how you should format your votes. Following the updated instructions and format will help me to put out tallies and results in a much more timely manner! Thank you!

I received 10 remixes. Here's what I have: Dopplergangers - Yami - Magma Flow (Magma Dragoon in Palace Ground [X]).wav Maverick Astley - Eino Keskitalo feat. Jorito & Tuberz McGee - Rolling (Frost Walrus in Palace Ground [X]).wav Nightmare Tank Police - Esperado - Smoothlike fellow (Mattrex in Palace Ground [X]).wav Rock Hard Mandrills - Jason Covenant - My Beerly Beerloved (Blizzard Buffalo in Palace Ground [X]).wav Sigma's Enigma - SuperiorX - Electric Moves & Cephalopod Grooves (Volt Kraken in Palace Ground [X]).wav Team Zero Treble - YoshiBlade - Toxic Seas (Toxic Seahorse in Palace Ground [X]).wav Vintage Reploid Squad - Sir_NutS - Firefly (Shining Hotarunicus in Palace Ground [X]).wav Wily's Rejects - Trism - Hidden in the Palace Grounds (Sting Chameleon in Palace Ground [X]).wav X-Square - Ivan Hakstok - Bounce Too High (Vanishing Gungaroo in Palace Ground [X]) .wav Zero Tolerance - pu_freak - Sigmandrill Palace (Spark Mandrill in Palace Ground [X]).wav

Next stage is posted. Doppler Stage 1 from MMX3.

I will be in Atlanta this weekend, and will return around 2PM on Sunday. Should not affect SFRG, but I will be out of contact for a while. If you have any serious, pressing questions concerning the competition, email me at darkesword@ocremix.org.

If you left-click the link and the MP3 opens in the browser to play, press CTRL+S. See if that allows you to save the file. That's immaterial to the discussion here. He's specifically talking about Edge, so unless you have specific points about Edge as a browser that can help him, please refrain from browser evangelism. As a website, OC ReMix will always attempt to support most major browsers; this includes Microsoft's browser du jour. If Edge presents usability issues with OC ReMix, we certainly need to know about them so that we can evaluate whether or not to provide a fix or workaround. Responding with what amounts to "ms browsers are shit use a better browser" isn't useful or helpful. There are plenty of people out there that have issues with Firefox and Chrome too, and we wouldn't want them doing the same thing.

I guarantee that if you "throw it all out the window and play what you feel from the heart" it's going to sound like shit. A good instrumentalist knows what notes to play during improvisation because they have a general understanding of how to stay in key and make specific choices when playing accidentals. They know this because they've played and practiced for a long time; they may not be theory experts but they still know what's going to work and what isn't going to work. An instrument is a tool used to manipulate sound, and instrumentalists have to achieve a certain proficiency with that tool in order to produce the sounds they want. That means actually knowing how to play an F# or a Bb when they need to, and that means they're making the choice to play an F# or a Bb for specific reasons. That choice can be made within an instant, but it's still a choice that's being made. I always roll my eyes a little when people talk about improvisation in these really romantic, cerebral terms where a person is just "feeling the music." There's a lot of study and practice that needs to be done to get to the point where an instrumentalist is proficient enough to be able to make those choices sub-consciously and let muscle memory guide their playing.

Yeah just to clarify for anyone new to following a gauntlet style competition, here's what happens at the start of every week. The week's Gauntlet theme is revealed around 5PM EDT on Sunday. Each team chooses a lead artist for the week. The lead artist writes and produces a remix using their Maverick's them and the Gauntlet theme. Team members are allowed to collaborate. The following Sunday, the artist submits their remix to me around 5PM EDT. I encode, tag, and upload the remixes and provide a link for download. Voters have about a week to vote on what track they think incorporates both themes the best. Scores are tallied and points are awarded for each round. Remember, we don't alternate remixing and voting weeks; every week another team member is writing a new remix. Fixed!

Explicit lyrics are fine, just warn people that your stuff is NSFW. If you want to share your work, hit up the Workshop forums; there's a place to post VGM arrangements and a place to post originals/non-VGM arrangements. Also check out Recruit & Collaborate and see if there are any albums that need help.

I've fixed your sig, Beth. All sigs should be uploaded! If yours is missing or needs fixing, let me know! Check the first post for the link!!

I went back and forth on that last night; wasn't sure so I went with forum name. I'll change it.

Also if you have edit requests for your sig, like fixing your name or something, let us know here.

Hey guys! rnn and I have been working on signatures for everyone, based on the basic design of my own SFRG sig. Signatures are available here. Not everyone's is done yet, but these are the one's that are available right now. They rest of them should be available soon. Please make sure you download your sig and upload it to your own image hosting. I don't think Google Drive plays nice with embedding images and remote linking. Thanks!

Xarnax, GrapplingHook, DjjD, I need your guys' team name.

Mmm, well I think I prefer a more standard Capcom art look with character art, and also something with typography that doesn't look like an early 90s kids dance show on PBS. Please know that I absolutely appreciate you taking a stab at sigs; I'm just very picky about aesthetics and graphic design, and this doesn't really jive with what I want for a visual identity. I'm going to put some sigs together tonight with rnn's help, based on what I've got in mine. I also need a team name for DjjD, GrapplingHook, and Xarnax's team.

I'm sorry dude but...that doesn't look good at all. I mean people are free to use whatever they want, but seriously...what's going on there? Why would that be a typo? The point spread is correct.

I posted it around 5PM EDT. It's in a new post a page or two back, and also in the first post.

Let's kick things off right! This week's theme is Palace Ground, the first Sigma Fortress theme from the first Mega Man X game!

Quick note about how scoring will work in the SFRG. As with past WCRGs, scoring will be based on your team earning points by placing in rounds. We have 13 teams competing this year, so this is how the spread goes, based on your team's place: 10 points 8 points 7 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point 1 point 1 point 1 point 1 point 1 point Any team that doesn't submit a remix will get zero points for the round, so ALWAYS submit a remix, even if it's only 20 seconds long. The scoring method I'm using here is essentially what we've used in the past for the WCRG and it's worked well; it prevents snowballing and keeps things competitive. Changes to the system aren't up for discussion.

As the first round approaches, I want to remind everyone to read the Competitions Code of Conduct (CCC). Remember, everyone—competitor and voter alike—is expected to adhere to to the CCC. The competitions I run are, above all else, about learning and self-improvement. I appreciate competitiveness and using that to fuel your own drive to produce great music, but let's be mindful that there are people of all skill levels competing, and many varied tastes within the voting community. The last things I want for the SFRG are drama and bad feelings. Good luck and have fun, everyone.

The draft is complete! Check your maverick theme on the Final Selections sheet! For anyone that's curious, we did actually get down the 5th selection for both pu_freak and DusK, who both chose Storm Eagle. In order to resolve this, I did a runoff for those two using a die, and then for the loser, I started going back UP his list (i.e. up to the 4th selection), giving that priority in any conflict (i.e. automatic win), and then continued to resolve any additional conflicts. Fortunately we didn't have to travel too far back up the selections.

Tomorrow evening!