OCRA-0045 - Sonic CD: Temporal Duality

[psychowolf]

Sup people ive been away awhile, my 2 cents.

Let sonic retro continue to hate their favourite game series and everything about both it and all fan made stuff about it.

ive seen the worst of the fanbase and i can say anything they say DONT take to heart.

am i considered part of this fanbase? sure but when i see bullshit i call people out on it.

i saw g-mixers comments about 2 months ago but to be honest i thought not to tell others about it and not cause the drama that has played out.

let me put this simply for you all.

i enjoyed the album.

you guys enjoyed making the album.

fuck the rest of the fanbase.

much love

psyche.

[Liontamer]

"Fuck" is used 40 times. Tons of the comments are shitting on something with unconstructive comments. Not a paragon of virtue re: awesome reviews. It's one thing to dislike a piece of music, but it's another to be a douche with the criticism, which kind of goes back to people being mad at G-Mixer. If the panel gave feedback like this in this day and age, we'd (rightly) be criticized.

That's the point about being 'blunt'. Sometimes you have to be to express an opinion. And I've been around DJ EAR a bunch of times as well and he has shown enough hands-on experience to back up his blunt criticisms.

I've certainly heard both ways of criticism work. I hope everyone I'm mentioning will forgive me if I'm screwing up the details and misrepresenting something, but IIRC, Suzumebachi mentioned how Mustin's blunt suggestion for him to simply stop making music -- i.e. the suggestion that Ty didn't have what it took to ever be good -- ended up fueling him to become better. I think Protricity felt the same way about virt being that negative about Ari's music way back when he was also a beginner, and Prot didn't forget it or forgive it for a long time, again if I'm not mistaken with my memory. So it's not to say that tactless, unconstructive negative feedback can't have some benefit and drive some people.

I just think that on the whole, "blunt" criticism without some sort of meaningful insight or takeaway is not nearly as beneficial as offering fair criticism with substance and support. I'm biased towards that, and that bias definitely has to do with cultivating a community of active artists with a desire to continue learning and growing. In this instance, it's certainly not DJ EAR's job or responsibility to offer what I feel would be more constructive, meaningful negative feedback while still being candid.

That said, I've seen a lot more people in the VGM community persevere and improve because of helpful feedback, not hyperbolic putdowns. "This is shit, you are shit, just keepin' it real" doesn't strike me as fair or accurate with much of the music the community puts out. Those kind of reactions only work to motivate so many people, and I think it's reasonable to say they don't motivate most. There's a reason the panel moved away from it a long time ago.

If anything, I think going away from kneejerk, over-the-top blunt criticism isn't about compromising your opinion, it's about taking the time to make sure your opinion settles into what's genuine instead of being hyped up.

[Garrett Williamson]

Hi, I happened to notice this was getting a lot of comments.

Most of it being about the bs I said at Sonic Retro.

Personally, I both loved and had issues with the album. I apologize for being a dick and keeping it secret. I just didn't want to try and act like the boss when that was entirely SuperiorX's thing. I don't like to try and take over when I really don't have the right to do so. I don't remember exactly what I had said, but there are definitely some tracks on here that have by far become my favorite tracks in ocremix history, whereas others I seriously did not like. I'm not going to name any here, but yeah, I personally had some issues with some.

It probably came out the wrong way there... I have a tendency to try and fit with the mood of the conversation to keep from having some outrage happening. It's a problem, and I apologize.

DiGi, I'm afraid I've offended you, and I feel pretty crappy about it. The honest truth is, I really do enjoy your vocals and that Stardust Speedway remix was great. I will be honest, "OverClocked ReMix Assembled" is a bit on the cheesy side, but I let it by because I genuinely loved that remix. The "LOLing this statement" was clearly pretty mean and I can't really defend it. It wasn't really my attempt at totally calling you a horrible rapper, because I don't think so. It was a funny statement to me. I'm not lying when I say I enjoy your vocals. I totally was a dickhead. I apologize.

I'm sorry, this was totally a "talking-behind-their-back" move and I shouldn't have done that. I'm still getting used to the fact this honestly has gained me a slight bit of attention and there are actually people out there watching me. I shouldn't be talking behind people's back anyway. That's just rude and unkind. I wouldn't like it if someone did it to me, so I shouldn't be doing it to anyone else.

So again, I apologize for my behavior and what I said. I was clearly wrong.

[DiGi Valentine]

Yeah, you have kinda stuck your foot in it. I don't even know what else to say, i've kinda covered my entire thoughts on all of this already. I don't particularly feel like dragging this out either.

It's ok to not like other peoples work. If you don't like something then don't like it. Nobody has a gun to your head.

You seem to understand why your actions can been taken as offensive by some of us, so i won't spend time covering that. But the reason for going there in the first place still baffles me. Maybe you wanted to fit in at Retro and come off as being 'one of them' so you'd figure you could score some points by running our names through the shit, i don't know. Honestly, the reason for doing it is confusing me, i can't figure it out nor am i going to spend any more of my time trying to do so.

But i'll say this in closing and leave it be.

We (as in all of us) worked together, as a team, for a joint project because we shared the same love for a soundtrack and the video game series it came from. We are under the same OCR banner during these times. Whether we like each others styles of music or not should not give us a green light to run a comrade or two through the fucking ground by dissing them in such manners.

I don't know if respect is anything you care about but for me a mutual respect is a very valid thing.

But at the end of the day, you're going to do whatever you want. All i'm doing is telling you how i see it and i'd rather tell you to your face that i didn't like what i saw.

You've apologised, it's done, i'm done with this. Let's just close the book on this whole thing and get back to whatever the hell it was we were doing before this kicked off.

Edited February 19, 2014 by DiGi Valentine

[Garrett Williamson]

I think the largest reason is because I've been with Sonic Retro longer than I've been with ocremix. Yeah, shoot me. So their hating Sonic remixes is nothing new to me, and naturally I just happen to agree with some of the stuff they say, positive or negative. Some of their points I believe are entirely valid, while others I definitely do not think are. Like for example, when they claimed ocremix is just full of preset loops that run behind some game melody. That's something I definitely don't agree with; we all put work into our mixes and presets are probably slim to none.

It's just the fact that if I really wanted to, I could've easily bashed around a lot of songs I didn't like on the project, but I decided to not say anything because for one, I think I was afraid of getting kicked out, and for two, it's not my right to do that. I'm not the director. So instead I stupidly went and said some crap at Sonic Retro. I should've known better.

Lots of those comments were simply made for entertainment. Most were true, a couple were secretly jokes to see what people's reactions would be on Sonic Retro.

Anyway, yeah. I think I'm done here. I've had my say. Hopefully that's all. I'm probably gonna end up saying something else anyway.

[DiGi Valentine]

Then i stand corrected on one part. You've been involved at Retro longer than you've been with us. I had presumed you just recently went there. Might be why your actions of posting there confused me.

In hindsight, i will retract my last post about speaking on terms using OCR's name as a whole to bring weight to my argument too.

Of course i can't speak for everybody, that was probably wrong of me to do so as well. But there does seem to be levels of respect within this community that some of us go by, the kind of respect which you disregarded and in turn had a bunch of us clearly annoyed/confused/etc ...which you've acknowledged anyway so, yeah.

This will definitely be my last post on this though, i just wanted to take the opportunity to tidy up my point.

I'm starting to remind myself why i just don't do this forum drama-shit anymore

[Ethan Rex]

Yo but that Sonic CD album was pretty tight tho

[Damashii!!]

suuuuper late to the party (been working on some mammoth personal projects. will be dropping in consistently again real soon), but I'm just stopping by to say that I wouldn't mind joining in another Talkback so I can enlighten some of these vocal hating muddafuggas who clearly have an infestation of maggots in their ears.

to each their own ( I mean that 100%. Everybody's got their perceived trash and treasure/good shiz/whatever), but in all seriousness I got a really good laugh at those Retro posts. Like, some abdominal workout type laughing. Guess I've been desensitized from other, much harsher forums, but in the end I know when I'm satisfied with my own stuff and when my target audience and homies dig what I've created.

Got absolutely nothing against people speaking their mind; but I've got EVERYTHING against people who ramble on the sidelines but don't even try to pitch in---- at all. =/

really wish the "OCR = circle jerk" comments would fuckin die already.

LOLOLOL @metaphist handjobs... XD

I dunno man, I think too many people shy away pr retaliate with a bunch of seething rage because they think EVERY OCR remix is supposed to be of Hans Zimmer/Skrillex/Mastodon/Rakim/N-SYNC/etc. production "quality" and firmly lying within a specific niche of Lowest Common Denominator genres...

(which of course, just by looking at some of the stuff on the front page latest remixes, this couldn't be farther from the truth). There's so much diversity that I truly believe a lot of people just aren't looking hard enough for "new/different" remixes.

buuuuuuuuuut I'll save this soapbox speech for another day. Gotta go save the galaxy again and shiz.

Cherna's French accent

**and yes, Matt, I'm STILL working on an epic novel review of the album. Scout's honor. ;P

[djpretzel]

One of the things I LOVE about our community is that it is amorphous and difficult to pin down... I never would have expected a Sonic CD album featuring so much funk & hip-hop, but I'm so damn glad it turned out that way. From album to album, there's so much diversity, with artists from all over the place chipping in, that comments about circle-jerks or exclusivity or self-sameness are just downright bizarre to anyone who knows the facts & takes the time to listen. Some people would rather blabber definitively about music than listen openly to it - can't relate to that, don't want to. I say & write quite a bit, but I do try and go for specifics, and I can say... mix to mix, album to album, each artist has their own style, each mix is its own thing, each album has its own flavor, and if you can't tell them apart, that's a damn shame for YOU, but doesn't change MY perception one bit

[Argle]

I wish people would just be honest and say, this doesn't appeal to my tastes. If they must be negative, which let's be honest, is not actually required. These 10 year old tropes about OCR they pull out instead are hilarious. It tells me they either have really bad ears, or potentially are not listening to the tracks at all.

[DiGi Valentine]

There's so much diversity that I truly believe a lot of people just aren't looking hard enough for "new/different" remixes.

I feel the need to quote an old Jay Z line if i may but it seems to go hand in hand with your trail of thought there - "do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?"

And honestly, i think that might some of the biggest problems that face musicians these days, especially in such an online world where music is practically dropping out the sky from everyone and their grandmothers mothers mothers.

People don't seem to actually want to invest the 4 minutes it takes to listen to a song right the way through, they'll just listen to the first 10% and if it has not grabbed them by that point they'll skip the whole track and say it was shit and they didn't like it.

I've kinda been noticing it a lot from people all over the place. Talk to some of your peers and fellow associate musicians about the plays they get on their bandcamp pages and see how many tell you they get a majority of 'red lines' in their song statistics.

It does feel like people will not pay attention if it does not instantly grab them. And i find that quite sad as there's so much great music out there to listen to, if only you give it the chance it requires.

I mean, ya know. The internet is serious business, there's clearly no time to waste listening to a 4 minute song when the next 10 hours of your day are going to be spent playing MMO's or posting on 4chan.

[Bored_Man]

Just thought I'd let you guys know if you didn't already; Temporal Duality got mentioned in the newest issue of Game Informer. Page 41, to be specific.

[SuperiorX]

Just thought I'd let you guys know if you didn't already; Temporal Duality got mentioned in the newest issue of Game Informer. Page 41, to be specific.

Oh no way really? That's awesome. Do you have a link or a screen grab perhaps? I'm curious what they said!

[DiGi Valentine]

Just thought I'd let you guys know if you didn't already; Temporal Duality got mentioned in the newest issue of Game Informer. Page 41, to be specific.

Pics or it didn't happen! lol, actually i'm heading out right now, i'll see if i can find a copy anywhere. If not, someone else may have to provide a scan!

Thanks for the tip! This could have honestly passed us by.

Back within the hour~

[Garrett Williamson]

There's so much diversity that I truly believe a lot of people just aren't looking hard enough for "new/different" remixes.

yeah personally I think there was a lot of the same electronic stuff going on in this record, but I liked it. I think Project Chaos has just set some high standards for just about everybody now, and Sonic Retro is really hard to please when it comes to ocremix. A lot of them didn't even like Project Chaos either. Most of them for that matter.

personally, Project Chaos is still my favorite Sonic project. But the new electronic sound going on in this project is something I seriously enjoy, especially with ToN's track and Kruai's track.

[Bored_Man]

The picture is a bit big, so I'll just provide a link to it.

http://imgur.com/gImvl1l

The text came out a bit blurrier than I would have liked, so I'll post what it says.

"Sonic CD was one of the earliest games to make use of the optical format, and OverClocked ReMix has taken 38 tracks from both the Japanese and American releases and let 39 different artists remix the tracks, creating a zippy new synth album."

[wildfire]

The picture is a bit big, so I'll just provide a link to it.

http://imgur.com/gImvl1l

The text came out a bit blurrier than I would have liked, so I'll post what it says.

"Sonic CD was one of the earliest games to make use of the optical format, and OverClocked ReMix has taken 38 tracks from both the Japanese and American releases and let 39 different artists remix the tracks, creating a zippy new synth album."

Awesome! Thanks for posting it!

[Liontamer]

The picture is a bit big, so I'll just provide a link to it.

http://imgur.com/gImvl1l

The text came out a bit blurrier than I would have liked, so I'll post what it says.

"Sonic CD was one of the earliest games to make use of the optical format, and OverClocked ReMix has taken 38 tracks from both the Japanese and American releases and let 39 different artists remix the tracks, creating a zippy new synth album."

What's the month/cover of the issue? Also, cool to be next to (OCR fan) Brandon Sanderson in the plug section.

[SuperiorX]

Thanks for sharing! That is really cool! I'd be interested in knowing the month/cover too as I'd like to pick up a copy. I used to subscribe to Game Informer way back in the day. I honestly didn't know they were still around. Cool!

[Bored_Man]

What's the month/cover of the issue? Also, cool to be next to (OCR fan) Brandon Sanderson in the plug section.

March 2014, with Metal Gear Solid V as the cover. Glad I could share with you guys

[Brandon Strader]

Say zippy new synth album and nobody bats an eye, say ocr only posts techno and everyone loses their minds

[Liontamer]

Say zippy new synth album and nobody bats an eye, say ocr only posts techno and everyone loses their minds

My eye batted, for the record.

[Rexy]

Well it IS technically synthy for the most part, right? xD

Nice find on the press, guys! Is this the first time that TD got mentioned in print form, or do I seem to be missing something here?

[Arrow]

What's the month/cover of the issue? Also, cool to be next to (OCR fan) Brandon Sanderson in the plug section.

Seeing how many of us have Words of Radiance already on pre-order, this is pretty hilarious.

[SuperiorX]

I picked up the magazine today. I know it's just a tiny blurb, but this is still so awesome. I used to subscribe to Game Informer when I was a kid and I never would have imagined that something I worked on would end up appearing in the magazine. So cool. Here's the full-screen image: