DarkeSword

Nintendo's finally announced details and has shown off a lot of information and footage related to the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild.
I'm very excited about the open-exploration approach to the series. Looks gorgeous, sounds amazing, and looks incredibly fun.

Nintendo's finally announced details and has shown off a lot of information and footage related to the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild.
I'm very excited about the open-exploration approach to the series. Looks gorgeous, sounds amazing, and looks incredibly fun.

yeah I have all the music, I just need to prep the release.

Nintendo's finally announced details and has shown off a lot of information and footage related to the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild.
I'm very excited about the open-exploration approach to the series. Looks gorgeous, sounds amazing, and looks incredibly fun.

yeah I have all the music, I just need to prep the release.

yeah I have all the music, I just need to prep the release.

yeah I have all the music, I just need to prep the release.

I played D&D on-and-off for many years with a specific core group of friends. One of my oldest friends, Sarah, has run campaigns in her own personal setting since we were in high school, and I, along with other friends, have played many characters that helped shape the setting; one of my characters has essentially entered into legendary-recurring-NPC territory at this point. It's been a massive source of creativity in my life wholly apart from my composing/arranging hobby. I've spent a lot of time writing stories and engaging in both D&D and freeform RP to flesh out characters.
Sarah's DMing style leans more on the storytelling side of D&D over the mechanical, board game combat side, so it's always been a great way to engage in great storytelling. It's not even the typical funny stories you hear from folks playing D&D either about how they managed to kill their whole party or about how they just screw with people; it's more like, there's so much character development and real drama that it's become one of my favorite fantasy settings, on par with Dragonlance or LotR.
Haven't played in a few years because we're all adulting now, but I miss the crap out of it. Might bother Sarah to get a game going soon.

This.  Mercy is one of the most powerful champions atm, so it's a great pick for beginners.  I think I have one of the highest win ratio with her.  Lucio is a good pick too but his Q is more clutch IMO, so requires a bit more teamwork and knowledge of when its right to use it.  Zarya is good but she's also requires a fair amount of skill to play her well. 

I play Threes a LOT. This remix is awesome. Really cool electronic take on the jazzier source. Syncopation is KILLER.
YES

Nabeel's been showing me how powerful everything is over the last couple of months. I'm looking forward to this. I have an album that I'm working on and I want some SNES textures in there. I'll have to update Kontakt though, I'm still on 4. xD

SAC is licensed. You can just download the free 5.5.2 player.

Nabeel's been showing me how powerful everything is over the last couple of months. I'm looking forward to this. I have an album that I'm working on and I want some SNES textures in there. I'll have to update Kontakt though, I'm still on 4. xD

Nabeel's been showing me how powerful everything is over the last couple of months. I'm looking forward to this. I have an album that I'm working on and I want some SNES textures in there. I'll have to update Kontakt though, I'm still on 4. xD

Yes, and also... yes. We don't use direct game names, but for many of the Genesis sounds specifically, you can easily guess based on preset euphemisms/references. Recreating most types of SNES/Genesis sounds is entirely doable, and with the other systems, all the core waveforms are there. It's pretty darn flexible and has pretty wide coverage.
So let me get this straight... any time the staff & founder of OCR want to put OCR's name on something, we need "clearance" from "hundreds" of people?
Have you noticed that you're the only one expressing this perspective? That's why I asked others who might agree to chime in - it's so bizarre and out of left field that I'm genuinely curious if anyone else feels the same, or similarly. If as the founder/president of OverClocked ReMix, LLC I have to get "clearance" from "hundreds" of other people before doing something like this, I'd quit. So would you, if you were in my shoes. There ARE decisions that involve/require community feedback, namely when we do anything that affects the submissions process or content policy. We didn't get "clearance" from "hundreds" to run our FF6 kickstarter, or for that matter to release Random Encounter, which YOU directed. I'm not going to throw insults at *you* personally, but your *position* on this matter *appears* to be hypocritical & inconsistent... it's a VGM-related sample library, worked on by many OCR regulars/veterans, conceptualized by the founder of OCR & a former-judge and current ReMixer who's organized some amazing OCR albums. Again, the connectivity & relevance seem blatantly obvious to me, and appear intuitive enough to others.
FWIW, I do appreciate the role of "watchdog" and I don't mind decisions like this being questioned, but you're going beyond questioning and just making bad faith assumptions that don't seem to be grounded in reason. There's a cutoff point where it stops being "useful questioning of authority that prompts warranted reflection" and starts being paranoid accusation, incomplete appreciation of reality, or repetition of unreasonable & inconsistent claim...
If you cannot explain the above inconsistency more clearly, perhaps refrain from further contributing to the thread until your position is more fully-formed?

Final Fantasy V had an amazing, yet underrated soundtrack. Normally, a Final Fantasy OCR album would consist of arrangements of the entire soundtrack. DarkeSword does things differently with Final Fantasy V. Instead of arranging the ENTIRE soundtrack, the album is split into five smaller parts, with each part representing a specific element and specific characters. Part 1, Fire, was released in 2010. Part 2 came out last month. Very long wait to hear these nine tracks. And the result of that wait is one of the most creative arrangement albums on OCR.
Track 1: La Princesa de Taikun –Theme of Leena-
By Sixto Sounds
Source Track: Leena’s Theme 
It’s difficult to put into words how great this track is. What it boils down to is that it’s Final Fantasy V music remastered for a modern audience with mariachi and chiptune influences abound. Some of the chiptune pitch bends were a little off-putting for me, but that doesn’t ruin the experience of listening to the track for me. It’s one of the most unique music style combinations I’ve come across recently, and that alone makes this track worth a listen.
Track 2: Micker Cripper Mime –Theme of Mime-
By Mazedude
Source Track: Moogles’ Theme 
This track is a weird one for me. I did not like the distorted guitar. Sounded way too MIDI for my tastes. Everything else was very unusual (but still tolerable) for my tastes,  but perhaps that was the intent? DrakeSword stated in the directors notes how for a theme to represent someone that is known for copying others it sounds very unique. Yeah I can totally see that. It does a good job representing what the Mime is as him/herself, and not as someone else. It tells a good story, but it’s not something I’d want to listen to on its own.
Track 3: The Observer –Theme of Time Mage-
By halc
Source Track: Cursed Lands 
I could not think of a better genre to suit a time mage more than dubstep. halc brilliantly uses dubstep to represent the time altering abilities of a time mage without going overboard or taking any clichéd production routes (like intentionally changing the tempo of the track just for the hell of it) to represent someone with the ability to control time. On its own, from a production standpoint, this is oddly one of the more chilling dubstep tracks I’ve heard on Overclocked. And I don’t know if halc intended for this to happen, but the endings somewhat abruptness perfectly captures the other ability of a time mage, the ability to stop time. Brilliant way to incorporate a character.
Track 4: A Silver Light Shines –Theme of Mystic Knight-
By DarkeSword
Source: Dungeon 
This is a nice blend of a traverse through a mysterious dungeon, and the brave warrior who traverses that same dungeon. The dungeon theme was one of my favorites from the original soundtrack. What is achieved with this arrangement is that it doesn’t deviate from the mood of the original, while simultaneously adding a sort of excitement to the original. It’s almost comparable to Yasunori Mitsuda’s style of composing dungeon tracks.
Track 5: Remembrance –Theme of Cid-
By prophetic music
Source: Sorrows of Parting 
The evolution of this track (IE the slow percussion to the fast paced percussion and beats) does a good job exemplifying the start of an invention from Cid, to the finished product, while the rest of the music does a good job emphasizing the curiosity Cid may have of how this invention he is making. Or it could represent him studying a subject, and by the end of the track, he has come to master the subject. Final Fantasy V’s Cid. Then we get to the latter half of the track, where everything slows down. Perhaps to signify the transition to another invention or subject? It’s a very complex, and almost thought provoking arrangement.
Track 6: BZKR –Theme of Berserker-
By Sixto Sounds feat. Jeff Ball
Source: Battle 1 
In an album where genres and music styles are meshed into very different and unique combinations, it seemed very contrasting to include a hard rock arrangement of a Final Fantasy battle theme, something I’ve heard many times before. Thankfully, a violin is incorporated into this track to keep it from being a pure hard rock arrangement. I do wish that the violin could have been balanced just slightly so that it wouldn’t sound like the guitars are trying to drown it out. It’s not a terrible track, I just wish there was a better emphasis on the violin parts.
Track 7: Eternal –Theme of Red Mage-
By Brandon Strader
Source: Unknown Lands 
For this track, I’m not so sure how the red mage is incorporated into this track. Maybe it’s because the Red Mage is a hybrid warrior of sorts. And hybrid, would be the best way to describe this track. Also to match the “hybrid” theme, it seems like the first half of this track is very chill, while the second half of this track is more exciting. Very interesting, and enjoyable production work here. And to be expected from a Brandon Strader track, the guitar work here is excellent.
Track 8: The Wander –Theme of Summoner-
By RiverSound
Source: A New World 
The world is merged. Alone stands the summoner as he/she sweeps the battlefield with great creatures of power. At least that’s the story I get, as everything sounds so isolated at first. But as the track progresses, the track sounds more and more hopeful. The sweeping effects do a great job capturing the summoners power of….well, summoning. But the bottom line is, the production work here portrays hope in an almost hopeless situation in a beautiful way.
Track 9: See You Next Time –WATER-
By DarkeSword
Source: The Prelude 
Argh this track frustrates me. It’s so beautiful, but at the same time it’s so short (it’s still good though). There’s not a lot that can be said about this track. It’s simple, well produced, pretty, and leaves you wanting more. And more will come when the Fire album is released.
Overall, this was a very fascinating album. These artists cleverly did things that are generally difficult to achieve, or they did things that I didn’t think would be possible in an arrangement. It’s so experimental, and definitely worth a listen at least once. All of it. Even the ones I kind of griped at. This album does an excellent job exemplifying the motto “try something at least once.” And besides, it’s short, if you love video game music and OCR albums, you can afford to listen to this album at least once.

One thing I notice people getting overthinking in the compos is figuring out the keys of the tracks they have to arrange together. In my opinion (as the guy that conceived the source-versus-source style compo), figuring out the actual key is far less important than figuring out the mode, regardless of what the tonic is. It doesn't matter if one of the sources is in Bb Minor and the other is in F Minor. The Bb and the F don't matter. What matters is that the two tracks are in the Aeolian mode (aka natural minor). When the mode is common, it's incredibly easy to make the sources work together with each other, you just transpose the material from the sources (melody, chord progression, etc.) into a common key, like C minor or something.
It gets tougher when you have something like Ionian (aka major scale, e.g. C major) and Aeolian (e.g. D minor) sources being combined. Now you have to think about how you want to push them together. Do you flat the third, sixth, and sevenths of the Ionian source's melody so that it's Aeolian now (i.e. play a C major song in C minor) and then transpose to a common key? Do you keep the Ionian source Ionian (e.g. C major) and shift the tonic of the Aeolian source down to the relative minor (i.e. A minor)? These are options and techniques you can use to push two different sources together and keep them from clashing.
Remember, you can write an arrangement in any key you want. A song can be played with any note as the tonic. Think about the classic Star Wars melody:
G, D, C B A G, D
Except you shouldn't think of it that way. You should think of it as:
1, 5, 4 3 2 8, 5
Where 1 is any of the twelve notes.
C, G, F E D C, G
Bb, F, Eb D C, Bb, F
You see what I'm getting at? Worry less about the tonic and more about the intervals and relationships between the notes and where they fall in the scale. When you start thinking about melodies and chords that way, one of the barriers to doing multi-source arrangements disappears.

One thing I notice people getting overthinking in the compos is figuring out the keys of the tracks they have to arrange together. In my opinion (as the guy that conceived the source-versus-source style compo), figuring out the actual key is far less important than figuring out the mode, regardless of what the tonic is. It doesn't matter if one of the sources is in Bb Minor and the other is in F Minor. The Bb and the F don't matter. What matters is that the two tracks are in the Aeolian mode (aka natural minor). When the mode is common, it's incredibly easy to make the sources work together with each other, you just transpose the material from the sources (melody, chord progression, etc.) into a common key, like C minor or something.
It gets tougher when you have something like Ionian (aka major scale, e.g. C major) and Aeolian (e.g. D minor) sources being combined. Now you have to think about how you want to push them together. Do you flat the third, sixth, and sevenths of the Ionian source's melody so that it's Aeolian now (i.e. play a C major song in C minor) and then transpose to a common key? Do you keep the Ionian source Ionian (e.g. C major) and shift the tonic of the Aeolian source down to the relative minor (i.e. A minor)? These are options and techniques you can use to push two different sources together and keep them from clashing.
Remember, you can write an arrangement in any key you want. A song can be played with any note as the tonic. Think about the classic Star Wars melody:
G, D, C B A G, D
Except you shouldn't think of it that way. You should think of it as:
1, 5, 4 3 2 8, 5
Where 1 is any of the twelve notes.
C, G, F E D C, G
Bb, F, Eb D C, Bb, F
You see what I'm getting at? Worry less about the tonic and more about the intervals and relationships between the notes and where they fall in the scale. When you start thinking about melodies and chords that way, one of the barriers to doing multi-source arrangements disappears.

I find musical ideas are open to your interpretation of it. Whenever I was in these compos, I would plan the genre and tempo of all my potential remixes before hand. So for example. Round 1: I'll do a fast paced rock remix. Round 2: a slow synth pop remix. This was regardless of what opponent (and therefore source) I may face. I've never had to change an idea to fit with the opponents source either. I did this for varieties sake cause I didn't want to do the same track twice. In some cases, I purposely chose what parts of my source to tackle for each remix I may do ahead of time too. 
To try and explain it more simply... to me, source tunes are just groups of melodies and rhythms and you can build a track to work around them. You shouldn't think "do these two tracks work together" you should think "how can these two tracks work together" and experiment. Maybe you need a little variation to make a track work at a different tempo but you can get the core of the idea down regardless. I haven't found 2 tracks I can't combine together, and I don't think I ever will because imo, you can combine everything to everything via arrangements, its just how you go about doing it.

Exactly this. Everything you hear throughout your life builds your musical vocabulary. If you're trying to write a sad sounding piece of music, what do you do? You think of other music you've heard that makes you sad and try to do what that music did. Sometimes it will sound very close.

Now that we've switched over to Invision for our forum software, we're going to start making more use of the tools it provides.
One thing that I've always wanted to have for competitions was a calendar on the site where we can list relevant competition dates. Invision has a pretty great calendar application, so I've set one up.
http://ocremix.org/community/calendar/2-competitions/
If you're a competition runner, you can now add your event dates (such as start and stop date/times for mixing and voting stages, due dates, etc.) to the calendar. Right now I have it set up so that any event submitted to the competitions calendar requires a moderator approval. I'll be checking my moderator control panel regularly for stuff to approve, but if you don't see your event pop up after about a day, contact me and I'll see what I can do.
We might eventually put together a user group of the regular competition runners that can bypass moderation, but since this is new I want to keep an eye on things so that it doesn't get crazy.
If you have any questions, let me know.

If you want to write a remix for OCR, I suggest not using a MIDI, because here's the thing: that's not your work. The transcription and sequencing was done by someone else. Plus by using the MIDI, you're essentially circumventing the entire sequencing process. There's a lot more to sequencing than the notes; there's velocity, timing, and everything that goes into creating expressive lines.
If you want to be a composer/arranger, you have to train your ear. You have to get better at figuring things out by listening to them. The way to do this is to practice. Ear training is incredibly important. How are you supposed to write anything original if you can't translate what you hear in your head to your DAW?
If you use an existing MIDI, are we gonna know? Maybe, maybe not. We've figured it out before.
I've always been a proponent of ear training and doing things by ear. MIDIs are a helpful tool when you're starting out but they quickly become shortcuts, crutches, and ultimately hinderances to your artistic growth.

If you want to write a remix for OCR, I suggest not using a MIDI, because here's the thing: that's not your work. The transcription and sequencing was done by someone else. Plus by using the MIDI, you're essentially circumventing the entire sequencing process. There's a lot more to sequencing than the notes; there's velocity, timing, and everything that goes into creating expressive lines.
If you want to be a composer/arranger, you have to train your ear. You have to get better at figuring things out by listening to them. The way to do this is to practice. Ear training is incredibly important. How are you supposed to write anything original if you can't translate what you hear in your head to your DAW?
If you use an existing MIDI, are we gonna know? Maybe, maybe not. We've figured it out before.
I've always been a proponent of ear training and doing things by ear. MIDIs are a helpful tool when you're starting out but they quickly become shortcuts, crutches, and ultimately hinderances to your artistic growth.

If you want to write a remix for OCR, I suggest not using a MIDI, because here's the thing: that's not your work. The transcription and sequencing was done by someone else. Plus by using the MIDI, you're essentially circumventing the entire sequencing process. There's a lot more to sequencing than the notes; there's velocity, timing, and everything that goes into creating expressive lines.
If you want to be a composer/arranger, you have to train your ear. You have to get better at figuring things out by listening to them. The way to do this is to practice. Ear training is incredibly important. How are you supposed to write anything original if you can't translate what you hear in your head to your DAW?
If you use an existing MIDI, are we gonna know? Maybe, maybe not. We've figured it out before.
I've always been a proponent of ear training and doing things by ear. MIDIs are a helpful tool when you're starting out but they quickly become shortcuts, crutches, and ultimately hinderances to your artistic growth.

If you want to write a remix for OCR, I suggest not using a MIDI, because here's the thing: that's not your work. The transcription and sequencing was done by someone else. Plus by using the MIDI, you're essentially circumventing the entire sequencing process. There's a lot more to sequencing than the notes; there's velocity, timing, and everything that goes into creating expressive lines.
If you want to be a composer/arranger, you have to train your ear. You have to get better at figuring things out by listening to them. The way to do this is to practice. Ear training is incredibly important. How are you supposed to write anything original if you can't translate what you hear in your head to your DAW?
If you use an existing MIDI, are we gonna know? Maybe, maybe not. We've figured it out before.
I've always been a proponent of ear training and doing things by ear. MIDIs are a helpful tool when you're starting out but they quickly become shortcuts, crutches, and ultimately hinderances to your artistic growth.