Rexy

Metal Man, the PM you sent me was just a "hello". I didn't receive any WIPs from you aside from your "sheet music" sketch.

Not a problem! I should probably do the same but I'm *this* close to beating Rayman Origins at the moment

Well done you three! Having seen you guys' progression as musicians I know you'll all do great as additional members of OCR staff

Awww, that's very kind of you Alex Two guys with the same interest in the same song, collabing. That's the community spirit I'm talking about!

While the game could've been better easily, Spiralmouth's acapella score contribution turned out to be so catchy to me and add to the fun Saturday Morning Cartoon atmosphere the game was presenting itself with. Probably the first time I EVER paid close attention towards a game's title song. Even the game itself didn't disappoint itself score-wise; you'd be thinking exactly HOW they managed to get such textures done on a small 8-bit system like the Game Boy. o_O Katamari Damacy - Katamari on the Rocks NAAAAA NA NA NA NA NAAA NAA NAAAA NA KATAMARI DAMASHIIIII. Anything else that needs to be added is completely unnecessary. Klonoa - The Windmill Song I had stated in an interview with Mirby that these PS1 scores were often the ones that got me to pay a significant more amount of attention to game music than any other generation. Klonoa was one of the inspirational titles to me, and the theme song even proved itself with some great acoustic guitar programming for its time, time signature changes (holy 5/8 batman!) and fitting the appropriate nature for Klonoa's wind valley home.

Would've made more sense to go for a minim instead of a crotchet tie in bar 4, Metal Man. Oh don't say that - the Last Dungeon, being a bass heavy source, fits your style to a T and you managed to gain my trust. So I can trust you to really provide a solid result on it

I might do an intermission for Kaepora Gaebora, depending on how my other three (four?) coming deadlines go (FF6 / Wily Gauntlet Round 10 / Vroom / SD3). But either way, good luck in steering this through, Theo

To be able to listen to your own songs outside of context speaks volumes over how much faith you have on yourself as a person, so I don't see why people sometimes don't do that. It's like experiences in school when people run around with camcorders filming you - and then when you see it played back you shy over the recording they did of yourself. I have also shied over my own self-image in my youth, simply thinking that I'm a complete oddball in comparison to everyone else in the class. (And eventually I discover the reason for me being an oddball, but that's for another thread and another time.) So the same can also be said of your own artistic creations. Heck, I even shied away from my own drawings and paintings as a child after they were done, again for the oddball factor. And initially, the same could be said for my own music as well; I had similar poor confidence with my first musical endeavours on VGMix, and that was reflected when I hosted my first submission there, arranging FF7's "Wutai". I kept on stating in the VGMix chatterbox how nervous I was to go through the process and seeing people's reactions to it; though one wise set of words rang true from fellow site member Psycrow - "This is a videogame music site, not Who Wants to Be a Millionaire :P" As submissions increased, so did my growing tendancies to improve them. And within the years that followed I soon managed to feel an emotional attachment to some of them. The first track of my own that I EVER placed on my iPod, a Yoshi's Island collab with Jason Covenant, eventually went on to get rejected for liberal source, but it brought back fun memories of taking a PRC win after striving for so long and remains the only PRC entry of mine on there. Then came "Time's Anxiety", which GrayLightning saw as one of my best arrangements at the time and really wanted to refine it for OCR submission. And when I heard the final version, I was blown away by what he did to it and felt really thankful for the result that came out of it. That to me strikes as a very positive memory. And then over the years, with site projects coming abound - and the occasional Dwelling of Duels participation - I started to feel increasingly positive about my own material. True, I may keep finding tiny flaws when listening carefully, but it wasn't to the point that I'd reach for the volume slider and turn it down slightly, like in previous years. So yes, to answer that question, I DO listen to my own tracks. And in fact I have been growing in confidence over the years, though in spite of this I'm quite selective; the tracks of mine that live on my iPod are often my proudest ones, all to reflect that growth in self-belief.

1. Why do you think so many people submit and share their remixes to OCR? It can be for a number of reasons. Some may want to write music and get to share their creations with the world. That can be a very common reason because what other outlets are there? Back in 2005, we were spoiled for choice with OCR having the pinnacle of them, VGMix being free for user submissions, Remix: ThaSauce having a more relaxed atmosphere, RPGamer's Sound Test section being very welcoming for RPG remixes, and the Dwelling of Duels to be a part of if you're a live instrument player. But now the climate has totally turned itself on its head. VGMix is dead, hence it seems as if more and more people have gone to send stuff here to get a chance to be heard. Sound Test has trickled down its updates to the point that we are lucky to have an update 2 months after the last (believe me, I sent "The Feather's Reflection" over there back in June complete with the sheet music and it's still not up ). R:TS has also slowed down its updates. And the Dwelling of Duels, while standing strong and having become a more friendly environment now than in previous years, still is no place for someone merely equipped with no live instrument connections. So if anything, the community climate appears to be "OCR or bust"; I know some people may say Youtube, but if there's anything I've learnt from my time there, it's that the audience there is generally too "demoralzingly devoid of substance" (taking a leaf out of djp's book haha) to even pay attention to what you've done. So really, for the artist out there, there's barely anywhere else to go other than OCR. That brings me to another point: They want to improve as a musician. Sure, I know we have the workshop for that, and indeed one of the mixes I had passed was a result of extensive time in the workshop, but even then the judges may find out things that others could not. They also to me appear to be friendlier than they were a few years back as well - even some of the harshest veterans had more digestable feedback that would benefit your work for the better. And to be honest, I don't think the newer (more improved!) version of "Hogtied" would have existed without that feedback. But back to the workshop. That helped form one of the two Crash Bandicoot tracks I had passed - although that actually took a while to come to a conclusion. The performance was refined extremely well and I recall that Stevo LOVED how it turned out (thank you man ); however, at some point in mid-November I was told that there was a conditional yes due to the piano sample used. After some quick work with a different one, it got the formal pass from that judge and the track reached the TBP list that weekend. Even now I'm still refining my solo piano technique, but I feel that I will indeed be getting there. And let's not forget the obligatory point 3 - They want to be famous. You have to admit it - with the amount of industry credentials the site has, people may think that remixing game music is the way forward. For most it can be, but what about some of the more deluded people that this site has drawn, and the meme origins from some of these? ("Can the judges djp", "Your opinions as of late are ridiculous", "(deadly) (production) (cuts)" etc) And look at the amount of older blood here too - I've seen people deciding to suddenly jump in onto the site when they were approaching their 30s, and we've even had rare instances of people remixing in their 40s on here. To be honest, I feel more inspired by people like that than the younger blood, because it tells me something about their modesty and their feelings towards the site, not to mention telling some of us hard-on-our-luck people that we can never outgrow this scene any time soon. tl,dr; Fame, No other way to share music, Self-improvement. 2. Why do YOU do it? The question you really should be asking is, why DIDN'T I do it in the past few years? That was a time when I felt as if I wasn't going anywhere within the community, with VGMix going down and my involvment within the wider community taking several negative blows. At that point, I just wanted to take a more care-free approach to writing music, hence deciding to remain as strictly an album artist (I'm on the site without panicking about the judges) and doing the occasional remix while I try to pursue a more realistic career. And indeed, I let go of the PRC right when I was starting work. But in spite of all this, I've been with this same company for 3 years. It's not at all what I wanted to do, and though my work has been more central over the years, I felt as if I was cheated out of my studies for something like that. If there's anything I missed since my school days, it's the thrill of building as a person. Suffice to say, there had been a 5-month delay between Brandon Strader asking me to send "Hogtied" to the panel and me actually sending it; part of it was Brandon not even sending his end of the blurb, true, but part of it was also my fear of the panel - for what I felt ended up being a great collaboration, I didn't at all want to have my pride destroyed again. And I still wasn't confident when I sent "The Feather's Reflection" over either, over a month since the Threshold listening party. Only when I saw "Hogtied" on the blue TBJ list did it make me think I should make a move on it, and indeed I did. And to be honest, after everything I faced with my solo piano works circa 2005, I honestly wasn't expecting it to pass, let alone get four straight YESes. Then that following April I started to push myself and try "one last time" to get a Crash Bandicoot mix past the panel, because that was my goal since I discovered the site - to witness one make it on the front page. It's part of my adolescence, and part of my namesake. I felt that the only way I could even get past the site, or even come close, was by means of writing solo piano arrangements. So you can color me surprised when the OTHER Crash mix, written for the Dwelling of Duels the following month, passed the panel first! o_O And at that time, I had a more positive outlook. So to sum this up - I submit to the site because of the great PR between the submitters and the staff. My means of musical expression, while a great thing to dive into, can be seen as a mere second in comparison to something like this - not every song I make gets eventually sent over, simply because I feel some don't tend to fit within OCR's mission. And sure, I may have Brandon pulling my leg every now and again making me think that the staff are the opposite to what I'm thinking ( ), but I pledge a lot of trust into the site to make sure it all works out, and will do everything I can to keep on refining my technique. At this point last year I considered myself lucky enough to even have 2 songs on the site; now, I feel as if there's a way to really bring myself out. It's a long post, no need to read it all at once, but my feelings about it need to be said, hahaha.

Going by statistics from having this laptop since back in September 2010 and this particular iPod since August 2011. According to iTunes, my most played OCRemix songs are every song off The Sound of Speed - if that album isn't sexy to you, I don't know what counts as sexy to you then. As for most played songs off the iPod - two of mine are way up there ("Hogtied" and "The Feather's Reflection" - hey, got to have an ego), along with OA/Scaredsim's "The Sound of Speed", WillRock's "Bare Knuckle Blitz" and Dr Manhattan's "Mr Pink Poncho's Western Rock Band". I just want my equipment to break less so I can be more accurate

Darangen's right - when I met Fishy, WillRock and ProtoDome for the London Gaming Con, they came across as extremely friendly and like-minded people. And the sheer amount of organisation on the panel we did and the antics afterwards were great to be a part of, and a worthwhile enlightenment into the more 'human' side of the OCR community. I hope to see them all again this December! Anyway, back to the point at hand. Naturally I was disappointed with the news when I found out. I saw this as a great working venture to pay honor to that one game that heavily changed my gaming outlook at the time, and that is something that I don't want to deny. So to see the news about the closed project come through, it made me feel as if all we did was a step in the wrong direction. But let's take Celes's words in the game as an inspiration - "You want to live in the world as it is? No? Then do something about it!" Of course, complaining to the staff is NOT a good idea as they have seen these two sides of the story come through. But what were you expecting them to do - push on the hidden project and release it under our noses, or let us release the thing while upsetting the other side? This comes as a compromise for both sides, and while it may be a stumble on this path, think about how the other side would react as well. But back to our take on this - let's take it all into perspective, right? Jason barely knows the game much but he has a vision to succeed with OCR's main aim in getting people out there, and coupled with that I have an emotional attachment that would make it work in ways that you can think. * When I saw the frozen esper in the Narshe mines, I stared at it in awe. * When I saw the moogle army, I just wanted to dive in the game and cuddle them all. * When I saw Kefka complaining about sand in his boots, I busted a gut. * When I saw Celes proclaim herself as "not a love-starved twit", I busted the other gut. * When I choked on my first run through the opera, I couldn't stop laughing at how I did that. xD * When I went through the Magitek Research Facility, I let the beat of the music flow in me, even going as far as doing an early case of the djp. * When I saw the apocalypse, I was scared and had nightmares on that scene for days. * When I (unknowingly) let Cid die and saw the following scene, I was crying buckets. * When I discovered the Falcon, I had this instinct to really work hard to overpower the odds. * When I saw the interior of Kefka's Tower... I apparently soiled my pants. .__. That's just a small list of feelings I felt with the game, and many of them ended up sticking inside my head a significant amount and have been very important events for my progression on viewing the world of videogames. In my honest opinion, it is THE best Final Fantasy game in the entire series and I felt honored to be able to work alongside Jason and see what can be done to work with it. And of course, some people may see us as the "raggy dolls" of this joint in comparison to the closed project. Well, we don't even know who's in the closed one so we can't come to close conclusions. What I can say is that they may have a vision, and even though we may not be considered the community ultimates, we have ours. There is more than one side to every story, and of course something can be said about a piece of music as well. Jason has a lot of production experience under his belt, while at the same time I want to make sure everyone brings out the soul of the music and really give it a sense of meaning. tl,dr; Don't worry about a damn thing! Just get in there, make great music, and make Uematsu proud - we can do this!

Hope you three had a great birthday! And yes, like Blake and Will I saw Liam in the flesh at the London Gaming Con; was a great person to get to know

Yeah, I remember Tekken as well Fun fighter for the PS1, though I can understand how it seems really underrepresented on the site. But you know, that's how I also felt about various other non-RPG PS1 franchises at the time as well, not just Tekken - heck, when I found the site even Gran Turismo was neglected - and suffice to say that's what some of us have to put up with. If Tekken was a more popular franchise for remixing in general things might've worked out, but even then in these days it seems to be given the shaft in the field of beat-em-ups these days, with mostly the likes of Soul Calibur and Street Fighter being significantly more dominating franchises; not to mention that I've yet to see someone other than djp tackle the franchise within this circle; so I don't think that for practical reasons there'd be as much interest as the Mega Man tournaments. It won't stop you from setting your own challenges up in there yourself. Maybe knock us dead with some Yoshimitsu vs Kazuya? Nina vs Michelle? Heck, maybe a bit of Jun Kazama versus Jin, her own son! If you've got the idea, then I say go for your own challenges, but I think if you want to see it turn into a serious competition, then there has to be more people interested than just a small clutch of them.

Brandon, I don't think it'll matter if you just miss one deadline; in your case, both tracks have a deadline of completion or near-completion to be April 1st going by the three-phase rule. You've still got time

Relm's turning out good too - got 90 seconds of solid material, and the instrument selection discussion with the #ocremix IRC tonight really made things worthwhile for accompaniment inspiration. Depending on how things go with my plans I might have the arrangement fleshed out by February yet

Heya Will I remember this track fondly from The Sound of Speed, namely for all the creativity placed behind the accompaniment writing. And to see there was indeed some inspiration from Michael Jackson's 80s/90s pop work involved was a good direction to take for what seemed to be a more blander source tune from Sonic 1. I enjoyed it a lot back then because it managed to capture this more industralised nature of the zone to a T, and is emphasized equally when compared to the other tracks on the album which for the most part tended to use more organic instrumentation (or in halc's and Ben Briggs's case, playful chiptune elements). Even the arrangement was marked as recognisable and plain fun, and with all the Sonic sound effects thrown in, what we have here as a result is something that is both quirky and accessible, and can be seen as a huge draw for Will's work. The judges may have been talking about "low source" here, and even so it barely makes it by only just hitting the 50% mark from what I've been noting down (unless they were counting the Sonic sound effect solos which may account for more time?), but what he did with the source was that he managed to handle it in a very respectable fashion, from the instrumentation choices down to the detail writing to even fitting in a Final Zone reference on the accompaniment at 2:04 - very appropriate given that it's the last fully-fledged zone in the game. Can't find much to criticise about the production; for the most part it's very clean and easily identifiable. The synths are well modulated and neatly expressed, everything feels well spaced and we have great means of expression elsewhere to really shape the track's progression. Only real qualm that I seem to have may have been the loudness of the snare in comparison to the drums, or maybe that the acoustic tone may not quite seem to fit quite so well in a track of this kind of genre, but they may be seen as nitpicks for what can be seen as a great track overall. So yes, great track from TSoS, and I am hoping that you will keep up providing the pseudo-80s flavor for 2012! Keep representing us Brits

I'm with Marmiduke on the source's shunted nature; most players would focus too much on DK before even taking in the source tune. But if it's anything I know with Nutritious and his interpretations of jingles, he turns them to gold. And true to his cinematic feel at the time, it's captured well with the tense starting before showing in a greater amount of familiarity with the quick stroking violin bows, and to see it being varied up later on with the string part writing later on into something more triumphant was also a great sign, and even the minor key segment follows a good touch and serves as a reminder as to what happens at the end of the supposed 'showdown' for those that played the game - something that could be seen as quite bittersweet even though there's still that hint of determination left. Such a strange source to handle, and I can understand how there may have been some revisions down the line before it ended up in this form, but as it turned out he got the arrangement down to a T. Productionally it sounds very clear, though in comparison to more recent orchestrations from him though, it doesn't seem to shine as much, which could be noted more with some of the stagnaant-sounding string texturing and slightly compressed general dynamics if anything; though on the other hand the booming percussion and shaping of the wind/brass instruments really helped to make it shine. For Nutritious's works at the time however, it's daring and yet the firmly established setup coupled with this great artistic vision makes this worth checking out if you're a fan of his work, or want to see some added depth to your Donkey Kong coverage. Good going Justin

Admitting defeat already? Nice going, I knew there was something odd in the works with the Hard Men other than the name decision.

I just miss people, that's all

If people are discussing tagging now, then I'm also one that didn't do much to them. In fact, the only one that I even messed around with the tags in amongst my collection is this: Better fits the source material AND my health record

My stance on it is interpretation is up to the eye of the beholder. Both Nekofrog's and BONKERS's points are legit ways of handling the arrangement, definitely. Though, if I have to state a stance - it would help if they state what the musicians were feeling with the source tune when making it. Messing around with the source or keeping it safer means nothing if the music-making passion isn't there

I used to want Magfest to be over so we can get started with the round. Then I took a pin cushion to the knee. (don't ask )

I'm not bitter for something that happened in the past. I may have been feeling that way with the voters in general, but let me say that I ultimately didn't have the intention to come off that way. In fact, I'm happy that I managed to come here and improve my skills as they may help me considerably for fuure endeavours. And I'm certainly not bitter for Brandon either - a little disappointed, naturally, that he didn't win when he was in the lead for most of the week, but I am happy that he did so well and proud he represented the team so well. Now please, let's just be happy and face round 10

Duplicates are being offered once every track is represented at least once. As for Dancing Mad, I think Brandon's intention is to cover the entire suite. I'm sure he can handle it though, given that the Black Mages can do that in 12 minutes

Well, I know that some people do change their minds throughout the week and wait til the last minute, which is understandable. But I thought it was strange to be well over 10 points ahead by last night and lose it all at the blink of an eye. But I'll put up with it, however possible. Also, you left out the Concrete Men on the tally [EDIT: Nope, found them. My eyes failed me again.]