Geoffrey Taucer

I can't make it this year

I agree that you should learn some theory, but I want to clarify: learning theory doesn't necessarily mean in a formal, classroom-type setting. There are a ton of remixers with little or no formal training. I would guess that probably half the remixers on this site (at least) never took any formal music theory training. BUT! This is not the same as not knowing theory. You don't have to know the specific terminology, but you do have to have a feel for the application of the principals in your music. You have to understand chord structure and progression, you have to understand time signature and key signature, and you have to be able to apply this knowledge in your music. This is something that some people can simply learn by ear from trial and error.

While I will not deny that $200 would be great, I have several questions before I enter a song. First of all, will this game be released commercially? What is the nature of the release? (ie downloadable on the internet, sold physically, or what?) Second, will I retain rights to the song? Third, will we recieve the money immediately, or after the game is released? (if the latter, don't expect anybody to enter until you've provided SUBSTANTIAL evidence that the game is approaching completion)

Best of luck to Jordan. Here's hoping for a full recovery.

It can be done for cheap or even free. In fact, it can be done extremely well for cheap or free, if you're creative. You can do a lot with reaper and free VSTs and soundfonts, and it is completely possible to create a passable and even an exceptional remix without spending a lot of money; definitely doable for under $100 and debatably doable for free (depending on what qualifies as "exceptional.") That said, if you're willing to spend money, you can HUGELY expand your options. The first thing you should get is a sequencer that you are comfortable working with. As far as capabilities, most of the popular sequencers are more or less equivalent; it's more a matter of which has the workflow that best suites your tastes. Reaper is $50 (for a recreational license), and it can, from what I understand, do just about everything you will probably ever need it to do. FL is pretty popular at around $200, and used by some excellent remixers, such as Zircon (who does music professionally) and DarkeSword. Note that DarkeSword uses (I believe) all free samples and effects. (Zircon uses about $33295720935780293850293587092875092375908 worth of additional samples and effects). Two other popular options are Cubase and Sonar; I use Sonar, and absolutely love it. The second thing you should get is a good soundcard. There are probably other remixers who can give you better guidance with this than I can, but I do know that there are some excellent options out there for under $100. The third thing you should get is good headphones (as far as headphones vs speakers: the best speakers are definitely better than the best headphones, but a >$100 pair of headphones will beat the shit out of a >$100 pair of speakers). You want headphones that are acoustically transparent; that is, you don't want headphones with built-in bass boost or anything like that. After that (assuming you're not doing any live instrument recording, which is another can of worms altogether), odds are everything else you'll want will be samples and effects; and you can get perfectly usable ones on the internet for free. Be warned; good sequencers are generally pretty complicated, and pretty intimidating when you're just starting; just stick with it and give yourself time to learn, and don't get discouraged when your first few mixes suck; everybody's do.

Unforunately, DKC3 and DKL's music sucked compared to DKC2 (though I have always wanted to remix the DKL temple theme...)

WAIT WAIT WAIT There are original FULL disc sets? Like, of the entire project? 'Cause if so I never got one. I got the demo CD with a few tracks on it, but I didn't get the whole thing.

Robo's theme from CT sounds very much like a Rickroll.

The track goes to the first person to send me a WIP that I like.

I'll probably go as Sabin from FF6

I'm considering comming in costume this year, if I can whip anything up between now and then.

You fucker! You should have posted BEFORE you moved! I live in North Raleigh, about 10 minutes away from NC State. Anyway, there's a ton of OCR peeps in VA, so you should have no trouble finding some cool people to hang out with.

Concurred with additional characters for more emphasis

If I can get off work (though that's not terribly likely to happen)

Didn't do the whole canned air thing, but did a bit of dusting and it seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks!

Dust where?

My computer keeps turning itself off. No warning, no shutdown screen, just turns off, as if it had just been unplugged. Five of the six times it's done this have been in the middle of exporting wavs from a mix I'm working on (one with a lot of tracks, and I'm exporting them to separate files to send to a collaborator). The sixth time didn't seem to be set off by anything in particular. Any idea what might be causing this, or how I might fix it?

Just got home from a week at Woodward gymnastics camp. It was AWESOME! Did heavy rings strength several times every day I was there (mostly worked in a spotting belt). My malteses have definitely gotten more solid (though still not as low as I'd like) Got a new dismount (double layout), as well as cleaning up my giants. Did a bunch of trampoline and tumbling as well -- I can now consistantly land a triple back on trampoline.

Great mix. And I LOVE the accoustic/ethnic breakdown. Percussion is especially well done.

Sounds to me like you're not lacking in ability, but rather in confidence. All n00bs suck. All n00bs find all the production stuff intimidating at first. But this is a hell of a lot better most people's first shots.

Checking in early this week, since I'm leaving for the OCR meetup tonight and going from there straight to a weeklong gymnastics camp. Been a decent week. Slacked off a bit monday and tuesday, but worked pretty hard wednesday and thursday. I'll be spending all of next week at Woodward, a weeklong gymnastics camp in PA. All-day access to some of the best facilities in the world. It's gonna be awesome. I'll try to get some videos while I'm there.

Where's it say that? EDIT: nevermind, I'm stupid

So do I have to actually buy it through guitar center in order to get it?

Did a ton of rings strength today. Went in this morning and, having left my wrist braces at home, I couldn't do any tumbling, so I spent most of the two hours I was working out doing either trampoline or rings strength. Then did some more cross work in the evening, just before going home.

You should call this mix "OMG TITTIES" (I'll give it a listen and leave some more helpful critique when I get home if I remember)