Bloomer

Do I remix anymore? I infrequently remix other musical artists, but not videogame music. Overall, I'm older, out of touch with new games, I work part-time so I can be creative the rest of the time, and my creative priority is my original work. I never say never, it's just that videogame music remixing is too far down the list now. At the height of my remixing, when I turned out a whole four remixes, one of which is on this site, I was learning about music production, but I had no money for pro software, so I started out using Music 2000 on the original Playstation. I thought my first remix made this way was pretty good (Terminal Velocity on the Mac/PC), and it's on OCR. I thought my second one was freaking awesome (Leander on the Amiga) but it was unanimously 'No'd by OCR. With the Leander track, I realised I'd done exactly what I wanted – it was where I was about to go myself, inspired by Aphex Twin's Druqks album – but it wasn't to OCR's taste. What I can say about this experience is that it pushed me to think: 'It's time to realise my own thing, because it's ready to go. OCR isn't a useful barometer for this thing.' I'm not going towards a simple 'remix = bad, original = good' argument with this anecdote. I think things are way more complicated than that. I know that people can feel pretty close to their covers and remixes (I don't have many, and I'm not just talking about the videogame ones, but definitely me!). Some feel proprietorial, others straight away say, 'I owe everything to the original.' There are as many motives and relationships with this kind of thing as there are people. What determined what I was remixing was: Can I make an alt version of this track I like that excites me? It won't necessarily be better or worse, but different, and it has to excite me, at which point I expect it will excite someone else. I excited myself four times, and at least one other person in each case, so I feel I succeeded. I have a lot of remixes I like hoarded from the 2000s, but the majority are from VGRemix, which was weirder and wilder. Sorry OCR, you were always too straight for me. * On that topic, if anyone knows any of the VGRemix guys, who are still looking for lost files from that period, point them my way. I tried contacting them, but they're only on Twitter, and geez I hate Twitter. If they email me, I can probably help them. Send 'em to: https://wadeclarke.com -Wade

Is this where I put my vote explanation? Well, I voted 'disagree' for now. Like many folks I do not like the lack of unrestricted ability to remove a mix. The best workaround I've seen discussed in the forums was The Coop's 'Cooloff period + 'once it's gone it's gone'' ideas. I'd like to suggest something else but I can't really think of anything. Not that I've gone out of my way to do so Btw, some context - I've 1 remix on here, and visit very occasionally, so I'm in no way a major user of or contributor to OC. I know nothing of the exodus of 2002 I've seen mentioned. However the principle of retaining control of distribution of one's work at the broadest official level is important to me and I believe in protecting it for all folks, especially in this not-for-profit context. Caveats are ok, so long as that initial path for me to say 'ok, I wanna remove this song' and know it will be acted on if I don't swerve is in place.

The constant filter ride and delay make this a very dynamic experience in the space between one ear and the other. Somehow for excitement purposes though, I find the track wanting. For me, it's in the nature of the Golden Axe melody that it wants to sound big and melodramatic, and the main organ line in this tune is such an inherently constrained sound that it seems to fight the nature of the tune. You could probably make a case for this being the point, but when the minimally percussive-sounding interludes between the appearances of the lead sound so cool, I kinda just wish the whole song had been made that minimal. THEN it would seem like an avant-gardey minimalist take on the Golden Axe tune! Right now it's neither here nor there.

Yknow Rellik, I've written 69 full reviews over at VGMIX, and of those 69, my review for your 'Outer Space Machine' remix has the lowest meta-rating of them all, at 20%... WHICH IS INSANE, BECAUSE IT'S A FINE REVIEW! May the entrails of whoever rated my review down that far boil! Boil, damn you! On that note, I liked your mix back then in February, and I like it now. What I said in that review stands today. Well done.