RWS - ReMixing With the Stars: Pilot Episode

[MindWanderer]

ReMixing With the Stars

Pilot Episode

ReMixing With the Stars is intended to give beginning remixers some support, encouragement, and mentoring in their quest to become great, and as a sidenote, to become posted remixers.

For the purposes of this competition, "stars" are anyone who is a posted OCR ReMixer, as the only artist or as the lead arranger on a piece. ReMixers with mixes accepted by the OCR judges but not yet posted also qualify. "Novices" are everyone else. This isn't meant to be a statement on who's a "good" or "expert" artist, but it's a somewhat meaningful threshhold which doesn't require any subjective judgment on my part (however subjective the OCR judging process may be). It's not perfect, but seeing as how objective criteria are almost impossible to come by when it comes to art, and these are the OCR forums, this is what we're going with.

Results!

1. First Place: "Broken Wings" by urdailywater feat. Flexstyle, with 35 points.
   
2. Second Place: "Vertigo" by wildfire feat. TheGuitahHeroe, with 34 points.
   
3. Third Place: "ScarfFace" by Tuberz McGee feat. Jason Covenant, with 30 points.
   
4. Fourth Place: "Yo Momma" by AlmightyArceus feat. Rozovian, with 27 points.
   
5. Fifth Place: "Before the World Ends" by Kuolema feat. Sir_NutS, with 25 points.
   
6. Sixth Place: "Upon New Shores" by Cash and Change feat. DusK, with 11 points.
   

Download Season 1 Now!

Participants

• Rozovian with AlmightyArceus; Source: http://youtu.be/f5_R4WMBZjg
  
• DusK with Cash and Change; Source: http://youtu.be/4P26FsWQf18
  
• Flexstyle with urdailywater; Source: http://youtu.be/g_1U7L_uDA4
  
• Sir_NutS with Kuolema; Sources: http://youtu.be/dv2rUPvp644 http://youtu.be/uhgkRJUnWN4
  
• Prophecy with Tuberz McGee; Source: http://youtu.be/rS0Lu_seKzw
  
• TheGuitahHeroe with wildfire; Source: http://youtu.be/sg5-ELCZ9Ys
  

Theme

This pilot episode's theme is "Beginnings"! Your remix should either:

• Be based on a source that's used for a title screen, into/opening sequence, or starting stage/area, or
  
• Evoke the feeling of being used for such a thing (regardless of the source). This is a judgment call, but in my opinion Who's That Child is a good example--I could easily see it being used for the epic opening of a Castlevania HD remake.
  

Schedule

All deadlines are 12 PM (noon) Pacific time (PDT). As this is the "pilot episode," we're going with a schedule that's a little more than a month long. The goal is to get it down to 1 month cycles

• Signups for Stars from Monday, July 9 until Tuesday, July 17. Please post in this thread indicating your interest. Also please provide links to 2 or 3 remixes you've done which you feel best illustrate your style and strengths. Also include any other information you feel would help someone decide if you would be a good mentor for them (software preferences, preference and schedule for IMing live, etc).
  
• Signups for Novices from July 17 to Tuesday, July 24. Please send me a PM listing:
  
  1. The Stars you are interested in working with, in rank order, or "no preference"
     
  2. Links to at least two compositions on which you are the primary or only arranger.
     

  Novices who choose "no preference" of Star get priority for one of the slots. This is to help make sure every Star gets to work with someone. Please do not disclose in the thread who you ranked or did not rank, or even that you chose not to rank anyone. I don't want someone to put themselves out there as a mentor and feel rejected, including by deduction.

  Your sample compositions don't have to be any good (this isn't an audition), and they don't even have to be game remixes--it's just to establish that you've at least tried your hand at composition and production to a digital format. Things you've posted to the WIP forum are preferable but not required.

  [*]Announcement of the pairings and theme on July 24. The theme will be broad enough to allow many, many options, serving mainly as a unifying factor.

  [*]ReMixing from July 24 to Tuesday, August 7 (2 weeks). Rules and guidelines below.

  [*]Voting until Tuesday, August 14. Votes should be based on, in roughly descending order, use of source, arrangement, production, and enjoyability. Interpretation of the theme shouldn't be considered. You'll pick your three favorites, in order. Your first-place vote will get 3 points, your second-place 2 points, and your third-place 1 point. Participants (both Novices and Stars) may not vote for their own mixes, but participants who vote will get a free first-place vote added to their score.

  I asked DarkeSword for a social group, but he suggested I use PMs instead. So that's the way we're going to do this. Please send me a PM with your votes, like this:

  1. First-place ReMix

  2. Second-place ReMix

  3. Third-place ReMix

Rules

• Pairings: I'm going to assume that the Novices will outnumber the Stars. The number of slots available for Novices will thus be equal to the number of Stars that sign up. Novices who put their name up in [thread=40410]the original thread[/thread] get priority over those who did not, and Novices who do not express a preference of Star get priority over those who do. Otherwise signups are first-come, first served.
  After establishing the list of participants, each Novice will be paired with their first choice Star; if two or more Novices choose the same Star, the conflict will be resolved by coin toss or die roll. If there are still conflicts after that, they'll be resolved the same way. (This method should be familiar to those who followed the Mega Man/Mega Man X/Sonic Zone compos.) If you lose the coin tosses for every Star you ranked, you're out and will be replaced by the next person on the waiting list--so if you rank Stars at all, rank everyone you're willing to work with. Left-over Stars will be randomly paired with those who did not express a preference of Star.
  
• Mixes: The Novice must be the primary remixer. Stars can contribute by giving advice, playing a live instrument or vocals, and with production, including minor adjustments to fix timing or dissonance issues. They may also contribute a short solo segment. No one other than the Novice and Star may help in any way.
  
• Submissions: All entries must be sent to me by the 12PM PDT deadline via PM on the forums, with a link to a reliable host for me to download your mix from. I also recommend you post in this thread that you have done so, since I know there have been issues in other compos with PM's not being received. Please submit your file as an mp3, preferably encoded at a high-quality VBR or 320kbps. Filenames must be in the following format:
  Novice feat. Star - Title (Game).mp3
  Example:
  MindWanderer feat. djpretzel - The World's Worst ReMix (Pong).mp3
  Proper file names mean I can do my job of getting the compliation done and posted faster, which means you get to hear the great music produced by this sooner.
  

[ad.mixx]

So does this competition run similar to the PCR? It's definitely not a tournament style commitment?

edit:

The goal is to get it down to 1 month cycles

I overread this, but I think it may be my answer.

Super excited for this.

[Melbu Frahma]

Glad to see this under way, even if it's just on a test/pilot basis. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of it!

[Mr. Bottle Rocket]

Man, I'd love to be able to sign up as a novice, sadly I'm not.

But I'll be following this intently

[pixelwave]

I'd love to give this a go!

[Rozovian]

Star here. I know nothing about music or sound, I've got horrible ppl skills, don't understand English. Also, I have no internets, and I hate newbs. I'm totally not a Mac user, either. And not in Europe.

/sarcasm

I screw with time signatures, and make groovy stuff in different flavors.

ps. MW, your rules for pairings make little sense. Might wanna rewrite that.

[SuperiorX]

Cool idea MindWanderer. I'm too busy to participate this time around (and most likely the next few) but I probably will at some point. I'll plan to give the songs a listen and vote though. Good luck to you and the participants!

[DusK]

Another "star" signing up. Preference for metal, punk, and other aggressive rock arrangements, but can do, and have done, lighter stuff as well. I'm stronger at rhythm guitar work than I am with leads, and can make some br00tal breakdowns. I use FL Studio, but my preferred collaboration method involves bouncing WAVs and MP3s around. Available to chat most days, screen names are on my profile, and my Steam ID is ItStartsAtDusK.

I'm capable of meshing rock and synth elements, meshing world and orchestral elements with rock, or can just straight up rawk.

[jnWake]

"Pairings: I'm going to assume that the Novices will outnumber the Stars. I'll determine who gets a slot based on the following criteria, in decreasing order:

1. Put their name up in the original thread and does not express a preference for a Star.
   

After establishing the list of participants, each Novice will be paired with their first choice Star."

This is quite odd, how are you assigning the Star for Novices with no preference?

[Gario]

Ooo, you're getting right on this, eh?

I'd love to participate, but amid the Sonic compo and a few other album obligations I'm going to have to sit this out for the first round. You can count on me as a STAR in later rounds, though.

[MindWanderer]

So does this competition run similar to the PCR? It's definitely not a tournament style commitment?

The plan is to go with SuperiorX's suggestion, more or less: this will be a standalone pilot, then Season 1 will be a series of one-shots where participants in earlier "episodes" get first dibs on slots but cannot be paired with the same partner twice.

Man, I'd love to be able to sign up as a novice, sadly I'm not.

I don't see a ReMixer profile on your name--are you posted/accepted under another name?

This is quite odd, how are you assigning the Star for Novices with no preference?

Clearly unclear; I revised things above a little, but basically, I want to make sure that every Star gets a partner, so if you are willing to take whoever's left over (randomly) I'm willing to guarantee you a slot. How can I state that more clearly?

I'd love to participate, but amid the Sonic compo and a few other album obligations I'm going to have to sit this out for the first round. You can count on me as a STAR in later rounds, though.

Sonic won't conflict, but probably your other commitments will. We'll see based on this test round how much time the Stars actually end up putting into it.

[Mr. Bottle Rocket]

Nah, used to "make" music a long way back, such days are now over.

[Gario]

Sonic won't conflict, but probably your other commitments will. We'll see based on this test round how much time the Stars actually end up putting into it.

Yeah - the Sonic compo is forcing me to push my other obligations closer to when this is going, and by the time I'm done with those I'll want a week or so of a break from remixing. Even still, I'll be in on this at a later date, for sure.

[wildfire]

I'm still in. Put me in whatever category you see fit, mindwanderer.

[Cash]

Do you want novices to only send you a PM? Or should they also express their interest in this thread?

[Garpocalypse]

Sign me up for Novice.

I'm pretty open stylistically, though i would prefer not to do anything dubstep related. Unless I got paired with bLind of course. Anything though would be a good experience.

Some Examples of what I have done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGaLulrvxs4 Experimental Horror piece based on Slender

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40535 Folk Metal remix of SoA Horteka Theme.

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32336 Remix of Streets of Rage Title screen. Rejected by the judges and currently stuck in limbo.

[wildfire]

I forgot to include style samples in my first post. Oops!

My SZRC tracks:

ZWNED

A Chaotic Mess

My Wispy Breath

Other stuff:

Deep Ridge

Undertow

[Magnetic Ether]

I just sent you a PM and then read the first post...which clearly states not to do so until July 17 XD.

Sorry!

[MindWanderer]

To clarify/reiterate: If you're not a posted/accepted remixer, as the primary or only contributor to a piece, you're in the Novice category.

Novices should wait until next Tuesday, when Star signups are closed, then send me a PM with their ranked list of Stars they'd like to work with, or specifically indicating a lack of preference thereof. If you want to post your samples in the thread, that's fine, but I want them in the PM as well so I don't have to hunt through the thread for them.

[Flexstyle]

As a posted ReMixer and resident Workshop Moderator, I'm going to go ahead and sign up as a star for the pilot here (although I may or may not stick around, depending on my schedule). On OCRemix, I've primarily been characterized by aggressive electronica renditions of games I've never played, but if you take a look at my

Soundcloud page, you'll find that I can literally do almost any genre around, within reason and with the right instrumentalists around me. I've chosen the name "Flexstyle" on purpose.

I don't usually play live instruments, as I play guitar very very badly and don't own a drum kit right now, and my keyboard skills are merely passable. However, I'm a longtime production enthusiast with quite a bit of formal training as well as real-world studio and live-sound experience in that arena, and I'm told I do well at explaining my knowledge to other people.

My current tools are FL Studio 10 Signature Edition, a few extra Image-Line synthesizers, EWQLSO Platinum Plus, the Shreddage soundfont version, and loads and loads of freeware and "magazineware" samples and VST plugins. There are a couple other bits and pieces of software I own that I haven't listed here, too. Oh, and I can do advanced pitch correction and modification for any monophonic vocals, with Image-Line Newtone and Celemony Melodyne 1.8.

Anyone who wishes to work with me will absolutely need FL Studio 10 (Producer edition or higher), but anything beyond that is basically negotiable. All my contact information should be on my forum profile.

[Troyificus]

This sounds awesome! Even if I don't get a slot it'll be fun to vote!

*EDIT* It's just occurred to me that it's more than likely that no-one else uses Mixcraft to make music so there's no point in applying for a slot. This'll still be fun to watch though

[Sir_NutS]

hmm. Sounds interesting, I like helping people out. Add me to the roster.

As for samples, I guess anything on my OCR artist profile will do, or my youtube channel (link at the bottom of my sig)

I work primarily on Reason. I can work on Reaper, Fruityloops and Sonar x1 but my main tool and the one I'm more familiar with is Reason.

[Rozovian]

It's just occurred to me that it's more than likely that no-one else uses Mixcraft to make music so there's no point in applying for a slot.

You're not seriously saying you can only learn from ppl who also use Mixcraft? Sign up, see whom you get, see how you can work together, see what you learn from it.

[Dj Mokram]

You're not seriously saying you can only learn from ppl who also use Mixcraft? Sign up, see whom you get, see how you can work together, see what you learn from it.

From what I understand, RWTS is not a tutoring, but a competition ...and a TV show ersatz too, apparently.

Meaning folks are in to learn/teach/have fun, but ultimately have to produce a song that compete with others.

Therefore, pupils need to be able to communicate with their teacher with more than just words and concepts.

Not to mention difference in learning-speed, and the fact everyone will be under the same time constraint.

[Garpocalypse]

Not to segregate who's in on this but should we list our DAW as well?

I use Sonar and would like to be paired up with an advanced Sonar user for at least one round.

I don't think the DAW issue would be a huge obstacle but it could limit how effective the mentoring would be if the star isn't familiar with something a novice has no clue how to use right.