The Coop

Void. Now now, I know what people think when Void comes to mind. Yes, he was a liar, a music thief and he basically fucked himself right out of the remixing community back in the early 2000s. However, what his dishonest actions caused indirectly was something of a good thing in the end for me; something that I've basically run with for a long time. He shed light on games that few had heard of and ran with the facade that he was making remixes for those games. However, I chose to actually make the remixes I posted, and not plagiarize like Void did when he claimed other peoples' work as his own. Everyone and their grandmother knows Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Sonic, Mario, Mega Man, Zelda, Castlevania and their brethren; games with soundtracks that many artists have remixed in dozens of genres. But what about games like Master of Monsters, Raiden Trad, Hellfire or Thunder Force IV? They didn't get much attention back then, which seemed like a real shame considering how great their music was. In fact, when I first came OCR, those four Genesis games had nothing on the site... and three of them still don't. So, I kept my attention on less-often remixed games for the most part. Yeah, I've dipped my toes into well-known franchises like Castlevania, Chrono Cross and Mario, but I've come to really like digging father down into the world of game music and pulling out games like Darius, Arcus Odyssey and Moon Patrol to focus on. So while Void's actions were nothing to praise, it had the inadvertent affect of steering my remixing "career" in a direction that I've enjoyed.

Soooooooo.... I'm guessing we weren't next in line?

PM #3 sent to everyone.

PM #2 sent out.

That should help

I do, but only once in a while. The majority of my remixes are for the Christmas albums, but I still do one or two here and there outside of that (like for the upcoming Chrono Cross album... or the dead Streets of Rage project). this is all because I'm mostly focused on my original work now, which is more enjoyable to me. Thinking about it, the role of music making for me has basically flipped over the years. My original work was all background stuff as I kept focusing on remixes. Now, it's mostly original work with remixing being in the background.

PM sent, folks

OK, so Thursday became Saturday. I had a number of things come up and it slipped my mind. PMs going out tonight.

Alright. The list is up to date. It's been almost two months since this project was kicked off and I'll be sending everyone a PM tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that.

I believe it was Mitaro who died, yes. As for Arek the Absolute, he didn't die. He went from dying, to better.

For me, it's 40-50 minutes. I've got plenty of CDs that fall in the 30-35 minute range that I enjoy, but 40-50 minutes feels like the right amount of time for an album when played from start to finish. It's also the time range that some of my favorite albums fall into, so maybe that's why.

Two more added

Well, if someone picks up the mantle, here's what I still need... - The artist names (real name or remixer handle, whichever someone wants to use) and the remix titles for the back cover / website. - Any comments by the remixers if they want to give a little insight into their remix. Also, since Touchstone is basically gone, we'll be dropping the "Notes" page where the project director talks about the making of the album and whatnot. So the website will now be three pages (Home, Artists, Downloads).

No one knows. We have no idea who sent final tracks to Touchstone and who didn't, if the two non-gold tracks were ever finished, or if there was any kind of feedback about the album from OCR when it became an official OCR project back in June of last year. Outside of the cover art and website art/layout, everything else if kind of up in the air.

I think this project has, unfortunately, gone the same way as the Streets of Rage project (which I was doing a remix for). It seems to be pretty well dead in the water.

That's three more artists onboard

It's that time again! Time to start thinking about Christmas as the temps climb to 100ºF+ around the country and people wax nostalgic about when it was cold... forgetting all the bitching they did about how cold it was, the snow, the ice, and all of that. And it's in that spirit... sort of... that we take our first step in getting this year's project underway. Soooooooooo... This project is open to any and all OCR members, regardless of whether you're a posted remixer or not. And now, the details... When's The Project Deadline?- December 20th, 2018 at 11:59 P.M. EST. This is now a REALLY hard, non-negotiable deadline, since it's very close to Christmas. We've had lots of last-minute entries and updates over the years and, to be perfectly honest, it shouldn't be that way. With months of time, having to hold off as long as possible for people made things pretty hectic for myself and Dyne in the past. Treating this project like a college paper that doesn't get worked on until the last minute got annoying rather quickly when it kept adding up to lots of hurrying year after year, with last second updates to artwork and retagging/reuploading things. As such, you have until one minute before midnight EST on December 20th to get me the final WAV or MP3 of your song. After that, you're shit outta luck until next year. I need time to do everything, including possibly making a little website to host this project if Dyne isn't online for one reason or another. So this deadline's set in stone... PERIOD. What Information Does The Coop Need?- When you send me your final versions, I'll need what name you want to use (real or remixer handle) and the name of your remix. You don't have to tell me what song you're remixing. Plus, if you have a website you'd like to pimp, supply that as well and I can add it to the MP3 tags. What Can Be Remixed?- Any song, really. Traditional Christmas carols, video game music, published music by a signed artist, music from TV/cartoons/anime... whatever gets your heart racing and into that Christmas spirit. This isn't an official OCR album, so you can draw from more sources than just VGM. Plus, you can take a non-Christmas tune, like the Main Theme from Space Harrier, Stage 6 Mission 2 from Metal Head, or I Defend STM from Truxton II, and turn it into a Christmasy one. So know that it's not limited only to songs that are Christmas-like to begin with. All that said, do keep in mind that if you want to submit your song to OCR later, you'll need to keep this site's guidelines in the back of your mind. But for this album, you can take it in just about any direction you want and get as crazy as you'd like (but please, no "Silver Bells" done in farts or something). How Long Can My Song Be?- As long as you want it to be. There are no restrictions on this, so whether it's 1:30, or 9:51 with a five minute guitar solo ala Metallica, it's all good. But again, if you want to submit your song to OCR later, keep their guidelines in mind. What Genres Can I Remix In?- Again, the door's wide open here. Rap, Metal, Pop, Piano-solo, Orchestral, Jazz, 8/16-bit, Barber Shop Quartet, A capella... it's up to you where you want to take it. What Format Should I Submit My Song In?- WAV or an MP3 of at least 192KB/s quality. I'll be tagging the MP3s and making MP3s from any submitted wavs, so you don't have to worry about that. But, if you'd like your website to be in the MP3 comments section, be sure to give it to me when you submit your song. How About A Little Music To Get Us In The Mood?- To help everyone along, here's a YouTube list of Christmasy tunes made by Ocre a number of years ago... http://ocremix.org/f...72&postcount=19 But remember, not all famous Christmas tunes are upbeat and cheerful. There are some that are more somber or haunting in tone, so you have more moods to play with than happy happy joy joy. What's The Website's Address Again?- It's got a new home at... http://williammichael.info/aocc/ This album will still be downloaded there as well, as Dyne will continue to host the albums on his site. How Do We Contact This The Coop Person?- If you've got questions, comments, concerns, want feedback, or your track is done and ready to be sent to me, you can PM me here on OCR, or send me an E-mail at thecoopscorner@gmail.com. Just be sure you remember to include a link to your remix. So yeah, there you go. You've got over five months to get something done for the lovely people of OverClocked Remix and the billions of listeners around the world who've become followers of our project. Good luck, have fun and make everyone some Nice Work™! Artists involved thus far... The Coop (director, cover artist and remixer) TheChargingRhino (remixer) Skull (remixer) Ridiculously Garrett (remixer) Audiomancer (remixer) Ronald Poe (remixer) Jamphibious (remixer) PlanarianHugger (remixer) HoboKa (remixer) AxLR (remixer) Argle (remixer) Lampje4life (remixer) Rozovian (remixer) LuckyXIII (remixer?) Furorezu (remixer)

WTF IS A SONIC?!

Thanks, BA I do have remixes here on OCR, but they're all from 2004 and earlier and sound... eh, not so good. My Youtube channel has much newer ones and some updated older ones that sound better thanks to my gaining more experience mixing... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAVmAVd_3uYXKKN5yYKKoNA?view= And my screenname is indeed pronounced Coop (like in chicken coop). I got it from an Alice Cooper song (Alma mater) from the line "Remember the coop, huh?" near the end.

**buzzer** Your guess would be wrong, I'm afraid. They're Classical. Piano, Orchestral, Chamber Music... things like that. I use my real name for these and you can check out some of the songs on the albums at my Soundcloud here (it's a mix of my company audio work and my music)... https://soundcloud.com/dragonwolfdesign/sets As for my novels, they're fantasy/fiction, based on characters I've had in my head since basically High School, and they're a planned trilogy. The music of my albums is actually based on scenes from these books as well.

Me. Adding class? When did that happen? As for what's keeping me occupied, I'm still trying to get a business off of the ground (Dragonwolf Design) and I've put out two albums (The Journey Vol. 1 & 2, and I'm working on Vol. 3). Writing a trio of novels has kept me busy as well. Other than that, just the usual daily grind and trying not to end up on an episode of COPS.

I'm still alive. Not around as much, but alive nonetheless. And yes, I remember both of those screennames, Blaster Atoms.

Don't be too down on yourself, Supercoolmike. There's nothing wrong with hopping from song to song if you have a bunch of ideas. But at some point, you need to focus. It's fine to play with melodies or a set of harmonies to get a feel for them and see if they could go somewhere, seeing as that's where so many song's start. And of course, getting ideas down so you don't forget them is important. But you need to return to those ideas for them to get anywhere. Don't just focus on the part you thought was cool sounding, because that's only one piece of the puzzle. As someone who draws, writes and composes, I can tell you first hand that in any art, there's going to be a time when you have to work on something that's going to feel tedious; that's not the part you really want to work on. Maybe it's a scene that has nothing to do with a plot point that you can't want to get to, maybe it's redrawing a minor character's facial design for the 20 time, maybe it's EQing a new set of instruments that'll be used for one small part of a song... it's always going to be something. The thing is, you have to prime the canvas before you can use it. You have to mix the paints before you get the color you're after. And that kind of "feels like I'm not making progress" work will always be there at some point to varying degrees. But if you don't get past that hump, nothing you do will ever reach the proverbial finish line. It's great to have those bursts of inspiration and get a bit down, but the inspiration is just the "Wow! This sounds cool!" part. It's the character reveal behind who killed who, or the physical trait that makes your character look interesting. The real work comes afterward, when you have to build the song sections that come before, are around, and that come after the "cool" part. You need to build the small plot points that lead up to the murder and chose the settings/quirks/background that would cause your character to have that physical trait. You can't avoid it. But here's the thing. As you work on your song/drawing/story, you'll find more bits of inspiration. You'll compose that new musical hook, create that bit of backstory, or design a facial trait that pulls you back into what got started with the initial burst of inspiration. But that can't happen unless you go back to what you did. It sounds like you've got the bits and pieces in place; the seeds of songs, so to speak. Now you need to pick one and listen to that bit repeatedly to get it into your head and start your mind focusing on it. Pick it apart, shuffle parts of it around, play with the harmonies and melody... hone in and see where your thoughts take it. Even if what you're doing winds up not working after two hours, you're still staying focused and trying to get it to work. You're still trying to pull more ideas out of what you've already done to make progress. So my advice pretty much mirrors what Meteo said. Sit down, pick a track and focus on it. I had musical and story ideas sitting around on paper, tape and PC quite literally for decades that just went nowhere because I didn't put in the effort to push them past that "this sounds cool" phase. So don't be like me and sit on ideas for years. Get your ass in gear, hunker down and push through the workload that's ahead of you with your music. Don't let it become a "what if...", because that shit will haunt you.

Hello? Anyone? Did this thing die off after being accepted? I'm still waiting for the info to put into the website (artist names, remix names, any blurbs about the songs, etc.), when everything for the site is needed by, and all of that. An update would be appreciated.

I was thinking about submitting mine, but I have a feeling between the sample used, the composition, and given how far the idea of OCR-quality has come since the last time I submitted a track, that it'd be a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I like my song and I look forward to getting to post it on my Youtube channel, but I don't feel it's above the proverbial bar when listening to OCR tracks that are similar in nature to my track.