DarkeSword   Administrators 🎮

Use the Workshop, not Community. Community is for stuff that's finished and released, or finished and releasing very soon. It's not for periodic updates, samples, and previews.

Because it looked like a trailer for Mario Kart at the start?

Sorry about the late notice, but yes, we are having a talkback tonight around 9PMEST. Tune in as always and tweet your questions to #ocrtalkback. Twitter is always the best place to ask the questions.

Hey, just 2 quick notes: First, for QC checks, please include a source link with your track links. Second, Cosmic, I strongly urge you to include Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z in the first edition. DB is one of the most iconic and quintessential Shonen Jump series with arguably the longest history of video games (going all the way back to the NES era). No other series screams Shonen Jump in the same way DB/DBZ does.

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Is it just me or does just feel like a very straightforward sound upgrade? I'm sorry, but I don't really feel like this is achieving that big powerful sound you're looking for. There's very little happening in the low-range and the whole soundscape is very sparse. I don't really hear a lot of personalization to the arrangement either, aside from some awkward timing changes to the melody where it feels like things are happening a 16th note earlier than they should. You go through the main theme twice and call it a day. I'm not as positive about this as other Js seem to be. This needs major reworking before even considering a resub. Dig into the source tunes, do some more elaborate part-writing, and bring more diversity to your soundscape. NO

Gonna try to do an APEX one with some Apex personalities prior to the event, but we can do an OCA one afterwards.

Brandon, you should keep information about current sources and what's happening with voting week-to-week updated in the first post.

Uh, no? We've never had lawsuit attempts against us.

That usually happens when we add new people.

Never thought I'd do this but I'm actually voting YES on a medley. I'm not a fan of the transitions; some of them are very abrupt, but in the end you give each section of the piece time to breath and develop, and you also bring the arrangement full circle by revisiting sections, so this feels like less of a medley and more like a single piece of some definitive sections. Performances are clean and tight. Really enjoyed listening to this a lot. I don't think the soundscape is that sparse; this is just the nature of small combo jazz.

Most likely yes. Site is definitely going to be mobile-friendly. Forums probably as well.

We talked about this a bit on Talkback tonight, but let's put it on the forums to make it official. There's some staffing changes at OCR that are pretty awesome. First up: the always excellent Chimpazilla is joining us on the Judges Panel, and she's pretty revved about burning through the queue! Next we've got Flexstyle, who's moving up from his position as a Workshop Mod. Together they will crush dreams! Finally, filling in Flexstyle's vacated Workshop Mod position is XPRTNovice, OCR's favorite multi-instrumentalist. He'll be stalking the Workshop forums doling out XPRT advice. Make sure you all take advantage of what he has to offer! Welcome aboard and good luck guys!

Probably not gonna happen. Not worth mucking around with vB when we're planning on exploring other options for forum software, and it's such an obscure case that there's not a lot of value in putting the time in. Just zoom before you tap the link.

I feel like this just isn't enough. I agree that the source is really wonderful, and I like your treatment here. But even as a sub-2-minute mix, it's gets repetitive. It's just that melody over and over again (albeit played well), not even so much as a small section where you vamp on the chords. I'd consider pulling in another Mario 64 source; maybe some bits from the ending credits theme, which has a similar happy vibe. A nice preview, but needs more. NO, resub

This isn't bad, but what happened to the bassline? A pumping track like this needs something in the low-range to support what's happening up top. The whole thing ends up sounding thin. Needs a strong bassline. The track goes a bit long, I feel, which is such a weird thing to say about a trance piece. The energy levels on this feel so static; you've got one short little bit where the percussion drops out, but that lasts all of 30 seconds and then we're just back into it. I don't feel like there's enough push and pull in this arrangement. It just relentlessly plods forward. A good start, but needs work, IMO. Definitely needs a bassline, some more highs and lows in the arrangement, etc. NO

See, I agree agree with this sentiment so much that I'm gonna have to vote NO on this. It's a really well done track and it's very fun, but I feel like the main parts of this track are wholly original. This feels to me like an original song that uses Goron City as a framing device. And yes, I do see that source breakdown up top, but I'm actually not a big fan of the stop-watched approach to source usage, nor am I fan of the original-vocal-melody approach to remixing either. There's a ton of melodic work throughout the Zelda series that could be mined for material here.

Yeah, digging this a lot more. I agree that the tempo change works a lot better here. Love the percussion too. Really nice soundscape, great rhythmic variations on the sources. I LIKE IT YES

That lead is killing me. I know what kind of sound you're going for but honestly it's too much. Especially around :50 with that massive wall of sound there. I love your rhythmic variations and general approach to the arrangement, but the sound design on the electronic stuff is so bright and splashy that's it's bordering on abrasive. NO, resub

OA and Vig are on the money. Those strings are way too loud and have practically no definition. You need something more interesting happening in the accompaniment. Guitar playing is great and solos are killer. Resub this ASAP NO

Yeah I'm not really feeling this one either. Justin says it best; it feels very repetitive and simplistic. There's some variation with effects which is good, but I feel like there needs to be more happening with the part-writing. You don't seem to have a good sense of when to modulate up and back down again the melody. Sometimes you go up and then stay there too long. It feels like it's very arbitrary. Needs work. Maybe consider pulling in Zero's other theme from this game to give yourself more material to work with. NO

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Music and Gaming Festival

Guys you gotta open them up. Don't you know how much time rnn and I spent on that disc art and layout?!

That's probably a bad idea. For the sake of fairness in these competitions, everybody should find out what they're supposed to remix at the same time. If you have a public voting thread for the next track, people in the Darkness Bracket can just watch that thread and see what theme is most likely going to win and then start their remix early. If you want people to pick the Darkness Bracket track for round 3, have them PM you their suggestions. Or stick to your original plan and have someone who isn't you choose the theme, which is probably the best, considering you're in the Darkness Bracket and can potentially be tasked with mixing in the upcoming round.