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Larry hits the nail on the head. Interpretation and energy is in abundance, but this really has an over-compressed sound to it. I think this could use another pass on the mixing before we post this up. NO, resub

The vocals are excellent, I wish they were louder. They sit a little too much inside the rest of the mix. Great idea going the half-time dubstep approach with a 3/4 time song. Ends up sounding like a beautifully aggressive waltz. I love Nier's soundtrack and this is a great tribute. Really wonderful interpretation of the theme, fantastic forward momentum that keeps pushing and pushing. Other Js have production crits which are certainly valid, but overall there's a clean, uncluttered sound to this piece that I really like. It could have gotten ugly, but it didn't. Loving this. YES!

Holy shit what

You ain't gonna fool anyone into thinking this is live—not with that brass—but that's okay. This has a great mid-90s redbook audio PC game vibe. Something like DREAMLAND MALIBU RACING. This is great. LOVE the slap bass going all over the place. Very energetic. Overall take is a bit conservative, but not egregiously so. I like it! YES

Session musicians and performers are instrumentalists and vocalists you're bringing in to play parts that you have written. Bringing in someone to sequence a solo falls outside of that, because that's essentially the composition of an original part; it's sequenced and not the result of an improvisational performance. The spirit of the competition is such that you and your team handle everything you possibly can on your own, without outside help. A concession was made during the last WCRG to artists who wanted to use live performers they knew in place of using a sampled and sequenced version. I only want artists to go outside of their team if very specific, very focused things. If you have a flute part and you know a flute player that can play it, that's fine. But bringing in an artist to help sequence your drum track falls outside of the session musician role. The allowance for session musicians is not a free pass to bring in non-participating artists from the community as collaborators. Session musicians are, in the context of this competition, not collaborators. They are analogous to a sample patch. I should also make it clear that you definitely should not be bringing anyone in to help with the production aspects of your track. That's way out of bounds.

No that's a specific battle theme.

Nice to see such a turnout. Signup will continue throughout next week, and the draft will take place Friday evening, so please continue to spread the word and get people to sign up. I'll try to consolidate all selections into a spreadsheet tonight. If people want to work out Maverick-selection conflicts on their own before I lock everything down next week, they're certainly free to do so. I want to wait for Ramadan to end before we get started with the mixing stages. As far as mixing stages go, would people prefer to have a weekend at the end of the stage, or at the start? I'm thinking of doing Sunday night to Sunday night. That way you get the week to plan and start, and the weekend at the end of the stage to pull everything together.

Diablo III is really accessible. If you've played Torchlight you're fine. Although, playing the XBox One version? I know people like the console versions (djpretzel loves the PS4 version), but I've gotta say if you're gonna play D3, join us and play on PC. That's where most of OCR's players are playing, and that's where the game is most up-to-date. Here's the "Starter Edition" where you can try the game out on PC.

I'd like to see the community take on the effort to do a full coverage album project for both the Genesis/MD and Saturn soundtracks for Sonic 3D Blast, similar to how Temporal Duality covered both the North American and Japanese soundtracks for Sonic CD. I can't run the project myself given other responsibilities here at OCR, but I'm willing to contribute some music. Is anyone interested in taking this on? These soundtracks are both wonderful, and I'd love to see a conceptual follow-up to Temporal Duality.

Don't usually like doing this but Kris covered literally every issue I had with this piece. LOVE the approach. Gotta bring that Banjo up. Source usage in the back half drops off. Can another J corroborate? NO, resub

Yeah this is my jam. Gotta agree on those low strings; killer, especially when the chord changes and everything sort of shifts harmonically. Keeping things fresh around 2:30 too, really nice change-up. Feelin' it. YES

I feel like the big wooshy pads are hurting this track. Makes the whole thing feel like it's flooded. Think about transforming that into some kind of rhythmic accompaniment. Gotta agree that the violin is SUPER-fakey and not working for me as a lead at all. You really need to revisit that choice. There's also some stuff happening in the harp that I'm barely catching that could be brought out more. Not a bad approach to the source, but it could could have a bit more going on. NO, resub

LOVE the source tune, love the game. Great soundscape with the chip/harp mix. Pitch-bendy square waves really channel the sound of older Gameboy Zeldas. Awesome arrangement. YES

Call me crazy but I actually like the lo-fi quality of the drums here. It's got this very old school vibe. The problems you guys are having with this piece don't really bother me all that much. I love the expansive feel you give the track and I really like the looseness of the live parts. I love how big this gets in the end. Really cool. YES

ooof...this started off great with some really interesting metal sounds and stuff, but as the piece progressed it just got really messy. You have a lot of parts sitting the same registers with very similar sounds that are fighting for attention. Its kind of like when you download an old MIDI from vgmusic.com and whoever wrote it forgot to set the instruments, so everything is set to piano. There's no definition between the parts. Everything is just sort of happening at the same time without any concern for the other parts. The resulting mix just sounds super messy. You need a lot more variety in your soundscape. This sounds like mush. NO

What the intro of this remix says to me is "I've discovered the arpeggiator in FLStudio." That part feels so exposed. Agreed with Larry and Kris that the repetitiveness is killing this track. Variation hits around 2:30 but it feels like it comes out of nowhere. Very straightforward approach; not bad, and a great start for someone new to the craft, but you need some more variation in the melodic lines that will help with the repetition problem. NO, resub

I'm feelin' it. Nice atmospheric music, great take on the sources. But it's got a kind of BGM quality; it sort of coasts and stays in a holding pattern throughout the piece, like a Sakuraba dungeon track in a Tales game. I was leaning on YES earlier but I'm tipping towards NO now. This needs a little bit more to it. Some more highs and lows. NO, resub

I think this sounded pretty good, but the danger of trying to sequence solo piano is that you're going to run into the problem of having your one instrument completely exposed. You can't rely on percussion or accompanying instruments to mask the sequenced quality of your work. I feel like Larry's right here; it's sitting in that uncanny valley. My suggestion? Export MIDI data to sheet music and collaborate with a pianist. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but a solo piano piece needs to absolutely nail the performance. NO, resub

Oof...really not feeling the recording here. Kills me considering how great the arrangement and performance is. I have to side with Larry on this one though; I hope you're able to revisit your recordings and clean things up. NO, resub

I don't like how you used For Endless Fight here; you've got it book-ending the piece but it's in a different key as Departure, which makes it feel out of place. There's no integration at all between the two themes and the transitions are jarring. There's also some bad note choices in your flute part around :37 and :40. I feel like this piece has a real balance issue. The lead guitar seems to be getting lost in the mix during the heavy rock sections, and the drums and bass seem to be fighting everything else for attention. You've also got the ascending arpeggio doubled in the guitar while the guitar is playing the lead, which just mushes everything together. I like the acoustic section in the middle. I love the sources you picked and there are some nice ideas here, but overall I think there are production issues and the arrangement isn't doing it for me either. It's a bit repetitive at points. NO, resub

No limits. Which ones?

Apex 2016 Garden State Exhibition Center Somerset, NJ June 17-19 OC ReMix is proud to announce that we're continuing our tradition of creating the official album for the Apex Series of tournaments. Apex is the premier Smash Bros. tournament of the world, with competitive Smash players from all over the world coming to compete. I don't have a confirmed list of games, but suffice it to say, all four iterations of Smash Bros. will be there. Super Smash Bros. 64 - Garrett Williamson Super Smash Bros. Melee - Beatdrop Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Chernabogue Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - DjjD Pokkén Tournament - Open Street Fighter V - Neblix, timaeus222 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Killer Instinct (XBox One) As always, I'm looking for high energy remixes, suitable for usage in combo videos and highlights reels. While I prefer to have remixes of source material unique to the Smash Bros. games, Nintendo music used in Smash Bros. games are also acceptable. Apex is in June this year, and I need to produce physical albums, so the tentative deadline for final remixes is May 1, 2016. If you're interested in remixing some other fighting game soundtracks, please sign-up for the Northwest Majors 8 album, which has an earlier deadline of April 1st.

I'm going to lock this thread. A lot of it is just speculation from people that didn't really know him. Gray was a great guy and a real friend, and he had his own reasons for exiting the community which we'll probably never know. I feel like a lot of this "he's probably dead" or "he's just someone's alternate account" is being disrespectful to one of the best members this community ever had. He was an amazing musician and one of the most dedicated staff members we had when he was with us. I'm not comfortable with people in this thread diminishing that with random, uninformed speculation.

SIgnups are open! Go go go! http://ocremix.org/community/topic/41336-mega-man-x-the-sigma-fortress-remix-gauntlet-2015/