DarkeSword

Brackets are up. Mixing for the X Bracket will begin on Sunday, September 2, at 2PM EDT. Match-ups will be posted then.

People don't actually do that.

Yeah I'm going to agree with Vinnie here. There is just barely any real connection to the source aside from the four notes at the top of the arpeggio. When you have -that little- of a source tune to work with, you need to use as much of it as possible. Nice tune, but NO, absolutely not. As Vinnie said, I think it would be a mistake to post this.

Just want to chime in here and point out that the bit that starts at 1:14 with the descending chromatic part from the SMB theme sounds really bad and does not fit at all. It yanks me right out of what's happening in the piece and doesn't harmonize well at all. I really urge you to try to adapt the SMB theme to something diatonic. Other Js have touched on production concerns so I won't bother with those; plus this is already at 3N, so I'll end my vote here. NO, resub.

Do SNESology tracks aim to be "hardware perfect" or is the idea more about the general aural aesthetic of SNES music?

There are a couple of things that I always like when I hear them in songs. Here are some: When there are sounds of people cheering and partying in the background, even though the song is clearly a studio recording. Examples include 'Love Shack' by the B-52s and 'All Night Long' by Lionel Richie. When there's an acoustic guitar section in the middle of a rock song that uses mostly electric guitars. The key change that goes up one step in the second part of a pop song/ballad. Awesome saxophone solos in 80s and 90s pop rock. Agree/disagree? How about things you like?

Hold off on any sig designs until I come up with the visuals for this year's competition.

Didn't I vote on this one? Hm. It's a pretty simple piano arrangement. Very rudimentary, repetitive left-hand stuff. I also agree on the velocities. I think that the piano sample you're using doesn't have a lot of range. It sounds like you're really hammering those keys even during the seemingly delicate sections. Try playing around with some different piano samples and see if you can find one with more velocity layers. NO, resub

Draft is complete. Check the Current News section of the first post to get a link to the Completed Draft Sheet. Check the green column for your Maverick.

I haven't decided when to start the mixing yet. If anyone has any major can't-remix weeks coming up, please send me a PM. I will try to accommodate everyone, if possible. Maverick picks are locked in. I will begin the draft now.

That's correct. It's the reason I ask for so many choices. I ran the draft last night and two people did end up getting their 4th choices. I'm going to run the draft again tonight because some people have posted changes to their picks, and I never did put down a lock-in deadline. I got Zerothemaster, Metal Man, and Trism's changes in on the sheet. I want everyone to look over the sheet and check their picks and make sure this is it, because after 9PM EDT tonight, I'm going to be running the draft for real. Here's a quick overview of how the draft works. When the draft starts, everyone's first choice is their top choice. I go down the list and look for top choices that have conflicts. When top choices conflict, I roll a die to see who gets their top choice (dice are useful when more than two people have the same choice). Once all of the top choice conflicts are resolved, the people who lost their die rolls get their first choices greyed out, and their second choice becomes their new top choice. I make a second pass through the list, finding conflicts. Note that at this point, it's possible that a choice that didn't have conflicts in the first pass could have conflicts in the second pass, and a choice that won a conflict in the first pass could also have a new conflict in the second pass. Conflicts are again resolved with dice rolls. Losing choices are greyed out, and the process repeats until there are no more conflicts. Sometimes people will get bumped down to their third or fourth choice; sometimes two people who both picked the same song as their first choice will both lose out to someone who picked it as their third choice; it all depends on the dice, but the draft does ensure that entrants are given a fair shake at getting a choice that's high on their preference list.

Can you post your new order?

This is the tightest thing I've heard since José's Unknown from M.C. Really great beats, nice adaptation of the Temple of Time theme, and absolutely excellent, relevant lyrics. Vocal performance is superb; great flow, mixed just right. Love the scratching. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA

That's fine. Just make sure you use that in your file names when you submit your entries.

I think Vinnie's got the right of it. Piano sample is probably okay but there's not a lot of dynamic range here. The piece never actually sounds louder or softer, just busier and calmer. Probably just overcompressed. Arrangement is lovely though; good integration of both themes, great transitions and tempo changes. Needs a litter fixer-upper. Would like to see this on OCR soon. NO, resub

Draft sheet updated. Check your picks to make sure they are correct.

Draft sheet is updated. Please check to see if your picks are correct. Sign-up is still open. We'll try to go for 32, but if we don't get enough, we'll fall back down to 24 and I will figure out how to make that work. Please keep in mind that anyone is allowed to join.

Violin is killing it for me. Very fakey, whiny violin sample that ends up sounding very exposed. Piano feels very mechanical too. There could be so much more done with the female choir in the beginning too; something more than simple block chords. Some nice ideas but the execution is really flat. Mechanical sequencing and general lack of a really emotive experience just doesn't cut it. NO

This gets really messy really fast. It's right when the guitars start playing sustained chords that everything starts mashing together. You've got a ton of guitars all sitting in the same space, all vying for attention. There is no balance here at all. Chiptune intro is hokey and totally unnecessary too. Drums get really repetitive and your bass starts doing something loud and weird around 2:30. The arrangement itself is pretty repetitive. You've got about 1 minute's worth of material stretched out to three minutes. The solo is too early in the mix and there's a lot of repetitive material after it. A solo is what you use to break out of an established pattern to keep things fresh. Using it so early means you've already run out of ideas. Not good. You need to look at a bunch of things with this mix; instrumentation and mixing as well as part-writing and the construction of the piece. Needs a lot of work, IMO. NO

Current draft picks are compiled in a spreadsheet linked under "current news" in the first post.

That's correct, yes.

Mega Man X: The Grand Maverick Remix Battle 2012 Presented by the OverClocked ReMix Forums Introduction The Grand Maverick Remix Battle is upon us! It's the fall season of the year 2X12, and Mavericks of all shapes and sizes, colors and creeds are converging at OCR to duke it out in a battle of musical supremacy! So begins OCR's second Grand Maverick Remix Battle! Current News Shieldner Sheldon and Sting Chameleon have called a truce and decided to share the title! Phonetic Hero and Theory of N have collaborated on a track together. It's available in the archival release of the GMRB2012 competition. Get it now! Collaborations with and contributions from outside artists are allowed, but the primary artist must be the actual competitor. Match-ups are live and in the brackets section. Remember to submit WAV files, not MP3s. Check the Releases section of this post for the latest remixes. Check the Voting and Results section of this post for voting rules and guidelines. A final note from your tournament organizer: The archival release is every entry re-encoded and retagged for metadata consistency. It also includes the badge graphics. I hope everyone enjoys listening to these tracks again. I think everyone did a really great job, and I'm sorry that the schedule got so out of whack (I blame Hurricane Sandy). People really brought their A-game (as they always do), and I'm really proud of everyone who participated, especially the folks who were initially unsure of their mixing abilities. Our next competition in the CapCompo Series will be this summer. We'll be doing another Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet, with a little bit of a twist that I don't want to give away. Some of you out there know what's going to be happening, so please don't tell anyone if you do. There's still a few months until then, so in the mean time make sure you check out the other competitions that are happening here on the forums. Releases The Grand Maverick Remix Battle 2012 Archive Release [205 MB] Brackets The X Bracket Match-ups Phonetic Hero - Shieldner Sheldon Eliminated Superior X - Rainy Turtloid Tuberz McGee - Wheel Gator AMT - Flame Stag Enigami - Vanishing Gungaroo Neblix - Crescent Grizzly Xarnax42 - Optic Sunflower wildfire - Boomer Kuwanger prophetik - Blizzard Buffalo chthonic - Magna Centipede urdailywater - Frost Walrus Jakesnke17 - Crystal Snail Cash and Change - Overdrive Ostrich BlackPanther - Blast Hornet Prophecy - Volt Catfish The Zero Bracket Match-ups Theory of N - Sting Chameleon Eliminated Yami - Magma Dragoon Zerothemaster - Infinity Mijinion Ectogemia - Bubble Crab Trism - Spike Rosered Amphibious - Slash Beast pixelwave - Armored Armadillo SilvernixSP - Crush Crawfish WillRock - Spark Mandrill Gario - Blaze Heatnix Metal Man - Flame Mammoth jnWake - Wire Sponge TheRexAsaurous - Storm Eagle ProjectSpam - Toxic Seahorse hakstok - Storm Owl Sir Nuts - Chill Penguin Badges X and Zero art are official artworks by Capcom. Nana art is fan art by Diana Da Costa. Voting and Results Voting takes place at the GMRB social group, here on the forums. Things to keep in mind when voting: Everyone is allowed (and encouraged) to vote. 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. You are required to vote in each battle taking place during the round. If you don't, none of your votes will be counted for that round. You are not required to vote in battles that have a competitor advancing by default (in the case of missed deadlines or resignation). Generally, a voting thread for these battles will not be made. You are required to make an actual decision between two competitors for each battle, meaning, you cannot declare a draw or a tie. This will be counted as not voting and your other votes for other battles will not be counted. You are allowed (and encouraged) to vote for your own entry when voting in your own remix battle. Do not post reviews in the voting thread. Compile your reviews for a round into a single post in this thread. Post the name of the remixer you're voting for in boldface text. Post only once in each voting thread. Everyone must adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. Submission All entries must be sent to me (DarkeSword) via PM on the forums. Please include the name of your bracket and the round number in the subject line of your PM. This year I will be encoding all MP3s myself, so please send me your submissions in WAV format. Do not send MP3s. File names must be in the following format: Remixer - Title (Remixer's Maverick vs. Opponent's Maverick).wav Example: DarkeSword - Snow Problem (Chill Penguin vs. Blizzard Buffalo).wav Please note that the Maverick names are two words (e.g. Chill Penguin, not Chillpenguin). Also note that versus is abbreviated with a period (e.g. Chill Penguin vs. Blizzard Buffalo, not Chill Penguin vs Blizzard Buffalo). Your artist name and mix title can be whatever capitalization you want but the Maverick names must be capitalized properly (e.g. Chill Penguin, not chill penguin). Properly formatted file names make it much easier for me to tag everything properly, which ensures good, consistent metadata on all the files that will be distributed to voters. You must adhere to this file name standard. If you don't, I will seriously consider disqualifying you, and I don't think anyone wants to be disqualified just because they couldn't name their file properly. In the past I have received really cryptic file names like gmrb2wip.wav and frost.wav, and that is unacceptable, especially now that the submission format is WAV. FAQ How does it work? You, the remixer, choose any Maverick from Mega Man X through Mega Man X8. Choose wisely, because this will be your Maverick throughout the entire tournament. Once all competitors choose their Mavericks, they'll be matched up with an opponent. When the round begins, remixers will have one week to write a "vs. remix;" that is to say, a remix featuring the themes of their own Maverick and their opponent's Maverick. When the round ends, a public voting period of one week will be conducted for each battle. The tournament will be single-elimination, with two brackets competing on alternating weeks to make things manageable. There will be an X Bracket and a Zero Bracket. All participating competitors and voters will adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct. So do I just pick a Maverick? Is it first-come-first-served? I'll be doing a draft for Maverick selection. If you're planning on participating, please post a list of five Mavericks you're interested in claiming, in the order of preference. Once everyone posts their lists, I'll go through and assign everyone their first-pick, resolving any conflicts with a coin-toss and moving down the lists as necessary. You will only be assigned one Maverick for the competition. Keep in mind certain Mavericks shared themes, so they will be treated as the same theme for the draft. Mavericks that were chosen in previous competitions are allowed, but I encourage everyone to try someone new. When does it start? The draft/recruitment period will last two weeks or so, so tell your friends and get people to participate! I'm shooting for 16 remixers, but if we get 24 or 32 that'd be phenomenal. Once we have the minimum amount, I'll gauge how much more interest there is and go from there. I'm not a remixer but I want to take part somehow. What can I do to help? We need sigs and artwork and stuff, so if you're good with the Photoshops, that would be a big help. Please wait until I nail down the visual design for this competition before making anything though. I'd like things to be more visually consistent this time around. What about Mega Man/Legends/Battle Network/Zero/ZX? This tournament is limited to the X series. Can I pick Sigma/Doppler/Repliforce, etc? No. The competition is limited to the main 8 Mavericks chosen during stage select in each of the 8 main Mega Man X games. Command Mission themes are also ineligible. Isn't this all just your way of tricking people into making Mega Man remixes for you? Yes.

I AM QUITE FAMILIAR WITH CONCRETE MAN SO I WILL VOTE ON THIS MIX Very groovy beat. I really dig all the syncopation going on. Really great expansion of the melody. Soundscape has just the right amount of reverb, really gives the piece a big, cavernous sound, especially near the end. Love it! YES

Not a fan of the buzzy synths, but this arrangement is a really great take on the cheesy source tune. Nice variation throughout the piece. Transitions are good, really nice breakdowns, great energy. YES

Alright here's the thing. The biggest (and basically only) issue for me with this submission is that it's a 10 and a half minute medley of songs from MM2. Your arrangements are conservative but expansive enough, and the performance and production is killer, but overall, the piece isn't cohesive. My suggestion to you would be to split this up into a couple of mixes. Your Air Man, Bubble Man, Crash Man, and Wily sections could all stand by themselves as individual pieces and I feel like this would work out better in the long run. Right now the only thing the medley says to me is "HEY REMEMBER THAT GAME MEGAMAN 2? HERE ARE SOME SONGS FROM IT!" The novelty of hearing a bunch of songs from a video game has long worn off for me, IMO; I'd rather hear some strong, cohesive individual pieces. NO, resub as many mixes