big giant circles

You should be able to donate without being subject to fees.

Sure, that actually sounds like a pretty solid idea, I think I'm feelin' it. Stevo, do you want to take point and see if you can collect a team of remixers who might volunteer for this? If we can get enough people signed up, we can more officially see about implementing it, I think. Let's just start with remixer willingness for now and go from there No telling, but my own personal guess is that someone reported us. DJP asked, but they didn't say. (Though it was a miracle getting ANY sort of sensible or intelligently constructed response/support from them at all, so that was honestly the least of our concerns at the time...)

I think you are totally missing the point of a fundraiser. I could be mistaken, but I believe that the suggestion was to collect a group of remixers who would agree to remix a song requested by a donor. Not OCR getting a donation and saying "ok, we'll see if we can get someone to remix that song". The onus would be on remixers to volunteer their services in exchange for the donation to OCR. Again, I'm not quite certain if PayPal would consider this shady or not, since it would have to technically be considered payment for services, and we'd have to clearly differentiate the difference between people just making simple donations and those who would be "purchasing" the services of a remixer from the site. It's a headache to think about, for sure, thanks to PayPal's fine print. Truthfully I think very little of them after that debacle last year.

I suppose that is a pretty cool idea. I'm not 100% certain, but I'm guessing it would not count as a form of gambling. Basically, a raffle means people are giving money in hopes that they'll get a prize, but not everyone will. As long as a specified service/prize is always received by the person who pays, I believe that's what separates gambling from purchasing. That being said, I'm not quite sure PayPal doesn't have some ridiculous fine print about offering services and collecting fees or something. Maybe DJP can chime in on this whole matter. More later. Also, somewhat of a side note, I'm having some slight problems with my eyes at the moment (nothing serious, just annoying and thankfully temporary), so I'll do my best to update the OP in a reasonable period of time, or otherwise get one of the Mods to do it, but bear with me if it takes a few days for your name to go up.

It's that time again, folks! APRIL IS SUPPORT/APPRECIATE OCR MONTH! Since last April, we've added about 7,000 registered visitors to the site, and we're still receiving hundreds of thousand of unique hits every month. That's pretty darn impressive We've had a great year, I don't think anyone can deny that. For those who didn't know, I unofficially declared April to be "Support OverClocked ReMix Month" a couple years ago, after hearing djpretzel privately venting some of his worry about site operating costs vs. funds. So after a forum post and some terrific support, we managed to raise about $2500 or so. If that wasn't impressive enough, last year we managed to double that figure! I've said it before and I'll say it again, many times: a huge thanks to every single person who helped to make that possible; I'm truly amazed, and djpretzel was truly humbled by your amazing support and encouragement. It seems there's always good things happening here each year, with the past couple years bringing some notably exciting news. From the behemoth project that was Voices of the Lifestream to our most recent project release Serious Monkey Business and all the projects in-between (and those to come!), to the HD Remix soundtrack, to releasing original game soundtracks, to new composer interviews, to seeing an increase in original composer participation, to all the accolades that this community and its artists have received in the press and professional community, to having official representation at gatherings/events like MAGFest, PAX, Otakon, and many others, we've been keeping busy! Oh, and aside from now being in the OCR2000+ figures as far as individual ReMix releases go, our biggest news is still a secret - all I can tell you is that it will rock. So anyway, you didn't come here to hear a bunch of exciting things about the site, you came to hear me whine about how we need your money! Well, you guys rocked so hard last year that we're actually not in the dire straits that we've been in the past couple years, which is great. That being said, I will gladly reiterate that OCR is not a huge site funded by Bill Gates with inexhaustable resources - it's still a volunteer staff and a tremendously hard-working dude named David Lloyd who writes, codes, programs, administrates, fixes, moderates, maintains, posts, evaluates, and appraises music from his living room, and the site still costs a fair amount of money to stay operational each month. Any and all donations are definitely put to good use and will certainly help ensure that we not only continue what we've been doing, but expand and implement more and more cool stuff each year. And because he's just that awesome, Dave has set up all kinds of ways for you to contribute to our site if donating just isn't your thing. We not only have affiliate links through Amazon and Zzounds for you to make purchases on stuff you're going to buy anyway, but we have a store with cool merchandise like shirts, hoodies, and stickers! And finally there's the google ads, which if you happen to see a link to something you might be interested in, by all means, check it out! Couldn't be simpler! That being said, PayPal donations are of course the most direct way to contribute to the site, and your humble contributions will not go unnoticed or unappreciated, no matter the amount. In years past, I've set a goal for us to aim for. This year, I'm trying something a bit different and not setting any goal or target at all. I'm simply asking as I always do, that if you spend lots of time on the site, if you appreciate the content that's provided to you at no charge, then consider throwing a dollar (or five or ten) this way. If you feel inclined to donate more, that's awesome, and I wish I had something more than words to offer as thanks, (I wanted to raffle some prizes last year as some small bonus means of thanks to those who contributed but unfortunately PayPal threw a fit) but I'm afraid our thanks is all we have. Thanks AND the promise that we'll keep working hard to provide you with awesome free content, and awesome music. I know I can speak for the staff in its entirety when I say that we appreciate the games, the music, and you. -Big Giant Circles Add this image to your signature and link it to this thread to help spread the word! FAQS Q: How/where do I donate? A: Our PayPal link, which is also the "DONATE" link on the top left of the page. Q: What if I don't have a Paypal account? A: You don't need one. You can pay with a credit card. Q: Will I receive recognition for my donation? A: Sure, if you like, we'd love to thank you publicly. Please note your forum name in your PayPal donation. And if you are not a forum member, please register! We're not a bad bunch, stick around, make some new friends! Q: I don't have the money right this minute--can I contribute later? A: Absolutely. Q: Can I just buy an OCR shirt/hoodie/stickers instead of donating? A: Yes--every little bit helps. Donating is the most direct way to help, since we only get a percentage of merchandise sales, but any support we can get is still very much appreciated. Q: How much money have we raised so far? A: We'll tell you when the month is over. Q: Are there any prizes involved? A: No. we tried this last year, but PayPal deemed our offering prize incentives as part of this fundraiser a form of gambling, which violates their TOS. Q: So are PayPal or store merchandise/affiliate links the only ways to support OCR? A: See this link for more info.

Just for today, I shall call you Snuggleman. Happy broday, birth!

rofl 10char

BTW, Tommy gave OCR a plug at the GANG awards

Generally fair opinions that you've shared, Dave, and I think I speak for everyone when we say that we're certainly glad you appreciate OCR's content and hold it to such a high standard--that means we're succeeding in our efforts to bring people quality music It's definitely fine that you feel that Mattias's music is nothing new, groundbreaking, or particularly noteworthy, that's probably the feeling that most people have of at least 75% of all the music out there, so there's definitely nothing wrong with saying you thought as much. The only thing I feel compelled to address is that while you do have such high expectations for any OCR music release, the Kaleidoscope soundtrack was a soundtrack for a game, not a stand-alone album. The musical direction was probably largely subjective to what the guy who signed Matt's paycheck wanted. I've not played the game, but I have seen footage of it and honestly, I'd say that the simplistic, quirky music fits the context really well. That is, I'm not certain that the game was really screaming out for a large heaping of, well, whatever would be necessary to turn the tracks into remarkably innovative, stand-alone masterpieces on any number of levels. I realize that reusing the same textures/instruments may seem lazy or uninspiring, but it was done for years with 8-bit and people never really had a problem with it--obviously we're not limited to chip these days, but you get my point. Last of all, let me just reiterate that the music was written to fit the context of a game. There have been countless times where I heard music in a game/movie/etc and thought to myself "Oh man, that music is sooo good, I must have it!" so I'd go out and buy it, but found that the experience was different (and often a little disappointing) than when I was hearing it behind the visuals and sound fx. That's possibly the case here (that is, saying that the music isn't quite as effective on it's own as it might be in game). At any rate, as you yourself have said, I hope you do not take offense to my suggestions, they're just another perspective and by no means am I trying to tell you why your opinion is "wrong" or anything. Again, comments and feedback are always welcome, and I think it's great that you took the time to listen to and formally appraise both Mattias's music, and your expectations of OCR as a whole, it really is appreciated Thanks for that, and we hope you continue to do it!

That is true, sorry for the confusion. You can get a nice stutter-ish sound from a gate though, that's why I threw that method in there as well. But Andy's right, stuttering is technically retriggering the same slice of audio very quickly, whereas gating is done to a continual instrument/sound clip. (Good for sustained notes).

There's nothing wrong with getting a laptop. The guy is just starting out, if he needs portability more than he needs a super computer, let him get a laptop. Besides, if he can't learn to make decent music on a limited rig, then I assure you it's not going to matter if he has access to 12 gigs of RAM and a 4+ core processor or not. I bought a $500 ASUS laptop last year as a secondary rig for mobile/live music use, and it has about the same specs as the iMac I was using since 2006. It can run FL, Live, Omnisphere, Kontakt, Zebra, NI's synths, and everything else I've bothered to throw on there. It's certainly true that a desktop for the same price would have doubled my HDD space and given me a better video card, and maybe a couple extra gigs of RAM, but it's still able to get the job done. I'm personally all for a good desktop given the choice, and it's encouraging that you guys are wanting him to get the "best" stuff, but in all fairness, he's saying a laptop is more practical for him, so let him run with a laptop. Plenty of people (yes, even pros) make quality music on laptops. And hey, maybe down the road he'll decide he wants/needs a desktop. It's pretty unlikely that he's going to look back and say "Oh man, I royally screwed up and there's no going back. I should have bought a desktop. Guess I'll never manage now."

I am highly disappointed in how few reviews this has considering the time it's been posted.

I assume you meant laptop.

That is also true. Furthermore, you could set up a gate using the Peak Controller and a 3osc channel. Look in your Projects/Tutorial folder for the "gate effect" and "peak controller (advanced)" project files. It never hurts to learn a couple/few ways to do something.

Andy's mostly covered it. I primarily use either slicing or the glitch plugin, which for the low price of free is definitely an awesome possibility. If you have a couple $$ to spend and want more flexibility, another pretty cool option I've recently been enjoying is Native Instruments "The Finger" plugin. It's kind of like glitch, but with a million more options, and you can actually play in the FX with your keyboard (or piano roll) as opposed to glitch, where the FX is pretty much on all the time and all you can do is automate the wet/dry when you need the effect.

SHHHHHH! psst, Darke is in on it dude, watch ur back

I don't trust you.

nobody seems to have commented that I showed up right about the time he disappeared... coincidence?

once again, happy birthday kids

Nice performance, decent arrangement and mixing. Drums didn't bug me all that much mixwise, but if I had to guess, they sound like EZD's DFH expansion kit, which has an awfully treble-y sounding snare and a not that great kick. Both could be beefier in my opinion. It does have some great crashes though.[/irrelevant]. Maybe the Steven Slate no-brainer deal would have helped this one achieve a more solid triumph, but I'm cool with it as it. Nice work! YES

Too much reverb, some rather persistent note-flubs, prominent FL Slayer, volume issues--some of the sloppiest production I've heard on the panel in a while. Arrangement is pretty straightforward and un-developing. NO

Never heard of her... Congrats!

I think what Larry means is that he likes the song so much, he would like you to make it just over 3 hours long.

3 N.O.'s eh? Maybe I should just take out the "OVERRIDE" and have this be a normal vote

very very cool track. love it!