Rexy   Judges ⚖️

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.]

Train of thought moving for most of the day, right from waking up: Me: "Well, it's End of Wily Round day, Brandon still has a massive lead, let's hope we win the round." (Checks votes, finds out that Benjamin Briggs caught up and is now tied) Me: "Awww CRAP! This is dangerous, I really hope Brandon gets more votes and soon, this isn't looking good x__X" (30 minutes left to go - Ben overtook completely) Me: "Nooo, we lost first!! Please, praying for more votes, don't let this long lead end in vain now..." (...voting phase over) Me: So, yeah, major disappointment from the Bad Guy Robots (as always). I kind of smell suspicion with everyone deciding to vote right in the last minute; maybe Flexstyle's right in saying that the voters ARE weird. But Brandon did a good song, put up a brave fight, and should have us geared up for round 10. Mad props, hermano.

Eh, I felt for the most part that MM6 had a very accessible score (moreso than MM3's robot masters in general imo) and fitted the general scope for the series significantly more than 5 and even 8. Maybe aide from Centaur Man and Knight Man I felt they had a great ability to sink into your mind in regards to structure and made them worthwhile to re-arrange, and I felt that Yamato Man was like the crown jewel of the game for me. Alas, I picked Plant Man from that game mostly for two reasons: simple structure (24 measures split into distinct sections) and the fact that there's no coverage on OCR yet (though I am aware of Vurez's "Amazonian Flower", thank you very much). Even then, I'm sure that between the five of us who represented that game (me, Geoff, Jason, Lidawg and Nuts) we've managed to come out with something really solid for that game's coverage

They can still check it out inbetween panels And hah, all of a sudden that link got me intrigued in making your own Warioware games. That's some neat design, and most of them look funny too - I gotta say the most ridiculous ones were the fuel station, the shopping one and Cut Man's eyebrow trimming game xD

Tuberz, just because Jason had a strict rule in place doesn't mean that the project won't be about having fun with the source material. In regards to the compositions, if anyone shares me any wips then most often that I will be very open to what you guys do with the arrangement direction and what kind of ideas you will bring towards the table. It doesn't matter whether you've had no mixes posted, 1 mix posted, a handful pending or even a triple CD Greatest Hits album worth of mixes on the site; I will still treat every person equally when it comes to giving feedback. I'm a little more intimate with the game too - emulated the SNES version not long after I moved house 10 years ago (during the World Cup at that ) and enjoyed it that much I went and got the PS1 version with my own money. So I know the progression enough to get people steered in the right direction while still making sure they add their ways on what the sources mean to them. I encourage people to really present their feelings

For everyone saying that Lidawg's track was too short, I was actually fine with it on a substance level. To me the structure/direction (and even length) could be considered somewhat similar to Cyril's own "Ninth Fight" on Back in Blue (or even , lol), and even then I felt this was Lidawg's tightest playing yet capped off with a rather enjoyable interpretation - probably one-sided towards Wily more than Knight though, but still very fun. Easy consideration for my top 3 In regards to short tracks, considering the DoD minimal requirement is 2 minutes in length for a serious entry, I don't see it as a big deal. What DOES make me feel uneasy for wanting to keep in my music playlist is if it's shorter than that, or bobs closer to 1 minute in length, but again as long as the substance is there for me, I'd take it

Let me try and be somewhat inspirational with this. Six years ago, even though I got posted twice, I decided to stop submitting to the panel because I felt that just sending tracks to the site to see them get rejected wasn't doing my well-being any good. I still kept myself semi-active, contributing tracks for site projects and writing music more at leisure. I considered myself one of those "fluke remixers" thinking that I couldn't get past the panel with anything without someone else's help, but I pressed on, still taking feedback as I saw fit while feeling more relaxed due to less judge-related streses. And yet, in spite of this, WillRock - one of OCR's greats - saw me as an inspiration in regards to arrangement primarily due to what I have contributed in these site projects. He used three of my four Tales tracks to promote Summoning of Spirits in a video upon release (and back then he wasn't even posted), and then nearly 3 years later he went and had over 20 of his own mixes posted! True, it wasn't until 2010 that I plucked up the courage to try the panel again, and even now I consider my production skills to be rather meek, but even at that I have been keeping a positive outlook over what I have been doing. And you should probably do the same too with your own musical growth. Being able to pass the panel may be a requestite to instantly claim a track here, but it's not a definite component if you're in there to make music. I definitely won't make a claim on another song if someone made one already, and I really trust that other remixers will still follow that etiquette; but if you can prove yourself by making a good sketch that catches Jason's attention, then that's gift enough rather than worrying about the panel

Well, given the general rules you're pending but not posted. But since there's no general interest for Devil's Lab yet, I see nothing wrong with you giving it a go; work on a WIP, send it to Jason's mailbox and you might be taken on. Which track was it btw? Embarassingly, I've been collecting a list of all pending mixes but I couldn't recall bumping into any with your name on it. Way to go though

MAGFest, right? Given the peace around here in general, I'd say you're probably not the only one.

That's a regular of The Shizz, where the Dwelling of Duels is held. Fun compo if you can play live instruments