Rexy

I was about to say that. just like I did with every other year! xD Make it happen!

Personally I'm with Mirby on the statement that the involved artists should be asked about this. We had experiences with Brandon to varying degrees around the site, though like djp stated in the FF8 thread post it's best to remain professional and make OCR solely about the music. As I have a finished track on this album, I'd prefer to remain on the album regardless of who's running it or whether it would be an OC Remix album at all, though I can imagine for some that there'll be grief no matter what happens.

...derp, that's an error on my part! Apparently I thought it was "Together Always", which grated on me due to the low-toned mallet melodies. Seriously, someone should at LEAST do something good with that song though

I found myself able to listen to the entire thing on the train back from a day out at London today. It's so refreshing to see so many arrangers specialised in meatier genres trying something new if they hadn't gone down the mellow route before - and for those that did handle it before, it's great to see what vision they had in the grand scheme of things. Silly notes that ended up coming into my head throughout it: - As an artist involved, I obviously got to hear "Baby Blue Sky" before even getting to pick a source. And my thoughts now are the same as they are back then - it's a tough act to respond to; the fusion of Chimp and halc's writing / production respectively works so bleedin' marvelously; and it serves as a great understanding for the album's vision. - Yep, Meteo Xavier's Secret of Mana track turned my least favorite source from the entire game into something much more tonally spaced and clean - as well as by far being the most energetic on the entire album (!!) - Considering a fair number of OCR arrangers are parents now, I'm surprised Eino was the only one that sampled his own kid in this! It also made me want to check out ilomilo as a game, but I don't have neither an XBox (and am keeping refusing to buy them for obvious reasons) or a Windows phone to play it on... - I can trust a trance-based arranger like bLiNd to make a pun on Samuel Barber's famous classical adagio. I guess it won't be long until it'll get other EDM remixes from people around GameChops or something... - You did good with that accordion, zyko. You stood out all those years as a musician that focused on stylistic creativity, so I'm glad to hear a track that makes it feel like you - Hearing E-Bison's re-harmonizations in the Sleepytime disc feels as if C418 ended up on the roster spiritually. Actually... did the 'recruitment net' get that wide we could've had C418 doing something for this? - LOL at Zoltan's sillytime bonus! Just wait til you get halfway through and you'll see what I mean. and who's that Rexy chick again? Some cute animal loving n00b? lol This album may have come out of the (baby) blue in terms of release, but it seems to be going really well. Hopefully this time we'll get those that think OCR does 'too much techno' or 'too much rock' to be silenced if only for a little while.

I wanted to see something for Crash Bandicoot's 20th anniversary and it actually HAPPENED in last night's Sony press conference! I am so greatful for both the remakes for the original trilogy AND the appearance in Skylanders Imaginators as a PS4 exclusive - I just feel so happy that there's people that DO care about the fanbase so much! It'll be a long wait to get gameplay footage, but I'll be glad to board the wait train and see what happens

I think I only have one question to add to this sudden revelation - what's the relevance behind Ralf Schneider anyway, other than just the first convincing German name that came up the top of your head? o__O

I'm so happy I'm not alone in regards to Crash coverage now! And not only did you go for a difficult source but I can see how it served as an outlet for your childhood frustration. Though the Crash 2 bosses didn't really give me much trouble in comparison to the first game, Tiny was definitely one of the bigger challenges there (no pun intended). For me, it's a great recognizable arrangement; sensed the source AND the Williams inspiration with the writing, not to mention some great additional melodies to add to the otherwise chaotic approach. I don't know why but the word-builder intro made me laugh - it's the same kind of effect as the final boss music of Jamestown, which also started out with amusing use of word-built choir, and in both cases it makes it feel less serious and more fun. It's also very difficult to be able to build up an orchestral palette when you have experience in multiple arrange-writing fields according to your Soundcloud, yet you've built up a great selection and also took advantage of different patches / keyswitches when appropriate (staccato strings at points, brass swells, etc). I didn't even expect the drum set given what I read prior to listening, though it's a nice surprise as using that gives me serious Video Games Live vibes about it. Seeing all this come together, I'm so happy to see you managed to put all this together to get it onto OCR! I am however with the judges when it comes to humanization, as there's some instruments like the piano and some of the staccato writing that felt more like the velocities for the entire riff were stagnant. It's a good idea to think about what the instrumentalists would do in a live setting and envision how the sound would come out for that purpose. Extended legato based sections, especially with some of the lead / chorded brass, can also benefit quite well from the MIDI volume control from what I've learnt; I don't know what patches you primarily used, but I'm aware of some that completely change expression depending on the value of the MIDI volume event at the time, which would be really useful to bring in a sudden dynamic change or regulate the kind of air-flow you may see from (again) players in a live setting. But yes, this is kind of weird for me to offer a pointer or two in an otherwise absolute moment of elevation for me. xD Kudos for giving some love to the Crash series here. welcome to the OCR clan, and I really hope you keep pushing yourself and sending stuff over in the future!

Interesting. I put in a few artists under those conditions and saw the common bridges out of OCR tend to be through either Jillian Aversa or Mega Ran. Mazedude stood out, though, with a loose six degree link using Chad Seiter as the outward community bridge. There's got to be more artists that would tie over in a completely different way... XD

Yep, I too hit 3 steps because of the Final Fantasy connection. XD I'm actually interested in looking for any artists that didn't cover any of Uematsu's scores and seeing any other major links that amateur arrangers could have.

Funnily, I have a feeling that OC Remix changed my perception on the world rather than my actual music making skill. Back in 2003, I was a college student that saw OCR as a fun place with a fun premise and wanted to instantly interact with other fans there; turns out, it didn't feel like a safe place for a 16-year-old pencil-using fanartist and amateur fan-writer with a huge admiration for PlayStation platformers, so after failing to interact I felt as if I could just keep my core interests as a low profile and start over when the time was right (i.e. the opening of VGMix's 2nd incarnation served as that platform). Needless to say, time passed and especially within the past few years, I felt as if I opened up considerably. As for music writing though, just being aware of the wider community for some time gave me time to experiment with different ideas, see a bunch of ideas work, see others don't, try to see what's supposed to work and keep pushing to blend in, which seems to have had a hand in my versatility. I STILL experiment to this day, though luckily it's over time when I finally felt I didn't need to break the gamer that I was to still make great arrangements, period.

I saw the news! Now I'm trying to find anywhere that is accepting preorders for the Special Edition, which is hard when it's just got a date xD

There's no release date for Europe yet and I'm super stoked to play through Fates! Awakening was the first FE game I ever played and it made me re-think how to approach tactical RPGs, so I'm totally set for going through the new installment. Birthright playing a lot like Awakening should be no problem, so that'll be a case of getting back to how the system works. Yet from what I read on the net though, I noticed people saying that Conquest (the one that plays more like a traditional FE) is insanely difficult and has nowhere to grind if you're stuck on a certain map. And being the challenge seeker that I am, I feel uneasy at the idea of playing through it on Casual mode. @AngelCityOutlaw - considering that you're actually making good progress through what I presume to be Conquest (in comparison to one journalist I read taking 12 hours to beat an early map, apparently), do you have any tips to share that would help out anyone that's currently struggling?

You know, I just realised something. What happened to PuD; doesn't he usually enter these MAGfest DoDs with some huge collab?

For the most part Brandon, I'm with you. I've heard stories of people doing silly things in the DoD listening parties at MAGFest, which is one of the main reasons why I hadn't taken part in one in the past. As for the whole 'straightforward metal' part, it's not so much a test of arrangement or production values, but rather the performance quality that gets taken on board. You can be as artsy as you want, as simple as you want or even as full of innuendo as you want; but as far as I'm aware, the highest scoring entries often had the live components of the DoD performed exceedingly well. In other words... killer studio chops? More like killer stage chops, am I right?

I totally will! There'll also be two other project deadlines along the way, but they should be nothing much to worry about x)

Perhaps this may answer your question?

i can say I've been able to work on it again as of late! There's still some empty space in here and places that need more of a rhythmic overhaul, but I'm still feeling really confident with how this is going down. I know you haven't been doing dates for some time, but if you give me one to aim for, I'll push as hard as I can!

I thought Bug! was a Sega Saturn game. I'm pretty sure we're getting our Sega systems completely mixed up here. xD Among the games I got for the PS1, I'd consider Klonoa a 'hidden gem' as hardly anyone got it, but to me it looked so beautiful and had a very unusual engine at the time - I mean, it works like a 2D platformer but the paths wind around a 3D map and could just cross over with each other at any time. The presentation looked really lovely for a PS1 game at the time, and to this day it's still one of those few games that make me cry at the end. I say try it out!

We're not quite done yet. We're still waiting on what Hyperion got, and I still don't know if Wes actually got my physical gifts yet (or if he has, he hasn't been in here for 2 weeks o_o). That's a neat Lego model though; I didn't even know you collect these!

Hello! You saw my take on these over at the RadioSEGA forums, so you know I'm on your good side However, two things I should just point out really quickly: 1) What do you mean by "recognized by Sega"? I've done some google searching and the only main promotions I have seen have been exclusively you posting it on various Sega fan-sites. I don't even know if Sega themselves shared it themselves or not, but from what I have seen, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that. 2) Take note that if you submit the vocal covers to the OC Remix judges, they would be instantly rejected due to just using the original recording and singing over the top. I say you should consider this set of covers as practice for when you start performing them on top of other backing tracks, whether made by yourself or produced by another arranger. You did however showed me you're able to make arranges of your own, so I'm optimistic that you'll be able to keep pushing them up to that same level. Just keep working on new stuff and learning from each one, and everything will be alright

Mike and Anorax were each other's Santas?! That is always an interesting twist, though it doesn't happen often. I say for future Secret Santas we should have at least one match like that for a laugh.

I say it's also really cool, buuuuut... 2016 also marks the 20th anniversary of Crash Bandicoot. And since it's not a Nintendo IP and currently owned by a very restrictive set of foster parents (Activision) that didn't give him a game since 2008, this is actually a very upsetting year for me.

Obviously I'm not going to be able to write my own, but if anyone is looking for keys, I'm available to help someone out. X)

Glad to hear you both got them! I spoke with Tables for a little bit after she got hers; the SS can be rough if your Santa may not make it in time, and so there's no way I'd leave someone behind. Since then, I got a LOAD of new Steam games added into the inventory! Tables's thank-yous were Secret of Monkey Island 2 and Half-Minute Hero 2 (the latter I virtually started playing as soon as I got it thanks to how much I enjoyed the original xD); and part 2 of Garpocalypse's package was Sonic 4 Episode 1 & 2 and DuckTales Remastered. I'm gonna get swamped in these games now but I'll totally sink my teeth into them! Thanks again you two, and merry Christmas to you all!

These two little figures (not the coffee cup which was bought at a past London Gaming Con) came through the mail today, and they look so adorable! And I was worried that with the lead up to the holiday, the OCR SS would be another delayed asset on top of everything else that had happened in the run-up to this event. Still, I am thankful they both came! Once I do some winter cleaning they'll have a nice, chilled home in my room. I had a look at the gift notes from the package and it also said something about download codes for some of their music. If they're anywhere, they weren't in the box; wonder if they ended up somewhere that I hadn't looked yet. Considering what the SS set out to do, I have a feeling there may be more that had gone under my radar, but we'll see. Nevertheless, thanks so much Garpocalypse!