Doujin Spotlight: YAMAGEN

Hey, thought it was about time I did another one of these. 🙂 This time, our featured doujin musician (or “DTMer” as they refer to them in Japan, for “Desk Top Music”) is a guy who calls himself YAMAGEN.

His site, YAMAGEN’S DEVILELIET, is named after his modified Schecter Devil Elite. To get to the MP3s, ignore the Engrish and click on “MP3 DOWNLORD”[sic], then on “Arrangement” in the menu on the right. I would suggest highlights, but it’d be pointless because ALL the tracks are highlights (with the possible exception of the vocal “Silent Night” arrangement 😉 ).

Just get them all…trust me, they’re worth it.
Over the past few months, YAMAGEN has quickly become one of my favorite VGM arrangers, doujin or otherwise. Specializing in Squaresoft metal arrangements complemented by orchestral strings, his work has a full and meaty quality I can only describe as a pure wall of glorious electric guitar sound.

You’d also be hard-pressed to call any of his stuff a “cover”…all of his arrangements manage to bring something new and fresh to the overcrowded Square table, and have a consistent level of excellence you don’t often see in other video game arrangements. I personally think he would fit right in with the guys over at Dwelling of Duels, and it’d be awesome if he ever submitted a track.

VGDJ #46 – The Liontamer Roars!

From the VGDJ Website, “Boy, have we got a show for you! We’ve kicked off our first ever
Awkward Trivia Giveaway contest, where you can win some great CD’s from
SGX, including his brand new album, Chroma. But that’s just the
beginning. For your listening pleasure, we’ve baked a (zircon) birthday
cake layered with ReMix Reviews, meetup madness, interviews with radio
personalities Liontamer and D-Lux, and of course a zesty stinger on top! It’s time to quit your podcast diet and gorge yourself on VGDJ 046. Nom nom nom…”

Cave Story Remix Project released!


I am the first track! 😀

The project as a whole is excellent. If you’ve played Cave Story and you liked the music you should check this out!

-OverCoat
Just wanted to let all you guys know the project was finished early this morning. now to go print about 30 cd albums Smile

22 Tracks, we covered abotu 60-70% of the original source. uh.. feel
free to post your feedback here or on Our own forums. Check it out Smile


-k-wix

http://kwix.shackspace.com/cavestory

CompoST 62

CompoST 62 happened today! The theme was “dogfight,” so in this one we had to create a song for a high-energy, high-tension duel! CompoSTers were: Myself, Skrypnyk, MagiNinja, vindkast, and djcubez. Lots of compo virgins today, you can almost smell the cherry blood. Anyway, here are the songs:
http://compost.lggaming.com/compost62/

Skrypnyk’s was the most liked out of everyone’s. Good job Skrypnyk!

OverClocked ReMix: Moves Tournament

From the thread @ OCR:


Ok, so I had the idea earlier today to hold a Moves tournament. Since
there’s not too many people that play, this first one is pbrbobablby
going to be small, but hopefully will build interest.

Format:

The tournament will be divided into two stages: A pool stage and a
bracket stage. Unless there’s a lot more people playing than I think,
the bracket stage will be 3 rounds, single elimination (8 slots). There
will be two pools (called “A” and “B” for simplicity), and 4 people
will advance to the bracket stage from each.

The pool stages will be round-robin, i.e. each person plays each
other person in the group. For fairness, each pairing will play TWO
matches, each person going first in one match. Points will be awarded
as follows:

-Win a match: 10 points.

-Each pawn remaining: 1 point.

-King remaining: 2 points.

This means everyone will get at least two points per match. The 4
people with the most points in each pool will advance to the bracket
stage.

The bracket stage will be a best-of-5 series in each round, with
the higher seed choosing who goes first in the first match, and then
alternating from there. (In the event of “tied” seeds, which is
possible due to drawing from two pools, the person with the highest
number of points in the bracket stage is considered to be the higher
seed; if this is tied, then the total non-win points is considered; if
it’s still tied, it’ll be a coin flip.)

The finals of the bracket stage will be a best-of-7 series instead of a best-of-5.

For more details click here…

ReMix:ThaSauce [finally] implements tagging system

So after much discussion on the forums, and a metric ton of procrastination, we’ve FINALLY added the experimental tagging system to R:TS.

The R:TS tagging system is now online and operational.

You can
look at the existing tags on each mix’s page, by clicking the tags on
the mix pages, and a complete tag list by click the Tags link next to
Games in the navigational menu.

You can add new tags by clicking
the Add New Tag link in the tags section of the mix you want to add the
tag to, and logging in with your ThaSauce user and pass on the next
page.

Siamey releases “He’s a Pirate” Remix Demo

Siamey has recently released a demo of a track he’s been working on which is a remix of “He’s a Pirate” from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Siamey wrote on his thread @ OCR:

Hi all

This is a small demo of a project ive been kicking around the office for almost a year now.

I took the song “He’s a Pirate” from Pirates of the Caribbean, and
changed its many themes from 3/4 to 4/4, and then proceeded to throw it
into a trance format.

The original song was written by Klaus Badelt, with some direction by Hans Zimmer…

wow.. look what i just found out, Disney just hired Tiesto to remix this song aswell. well.. damn…

http://www.hans-zimmer.com/fr/index.php

I HAD THE IDEA FIRST THOUGH!

ANYWAYS…

here it is, in its newer demo form:

http://www.siamey.com/files/02_A%20Pirates%20Life%20For%20Me.mp3

and also, the older version from about a year ago:

http://www.siamey.com/files/003_hes%20a%20pirate.mp3

ENJOY!

EDIT: No that is not a NordLead, that is a creation of my own using
Subtractor. What a question… it sounds nothing like a NordLead!

8bit Genocide Game Concert coming to Baltimore

From the thread on OCReMix:

For those in the Maryland/DC area, there’s going
to be a video game rock concert in Baltimore this coming Saturday!
Anyone interested?

“8bit Genocide”

Saturday, June 17th

8pm at Load of Fun Studios

122 West North Ave. (at Howard St.)

Baltimore, Maryland

Featured bands:

Powerglove

Entertainment System

This Place is Haunted

Temp Sound Solutions

pIEness

Featured artists:

8 bit artist

Mike Matei

The Jude Abides

Attendees:

pixietricks

Paul Levering*

Paul Owens*

Asif Siddiky*

* of the video game music documentary film!

Chroma, new SGX album, availible June 17th

From sgxmusic.com:

My new album Chroma is totally droppin’ JUNE 17.

It will be available both direct from me and from cdbaby.com like Better Than Sliced Beats is. It will eventually show up on download services like iTunes, Napster, Yahoo, and others.
I haven’t decided yet on price. More info to come. There will be a bundle price from me for BTSB and Chroma together.

Edit – I’ll be offering a coupon code for a small discount on Chroma
(if purchasing from me at my webstore) in my next mailinglist email on
the 17th. Sign up!

VGDJ: Episode #044 SF2 Special!

This week on the show all about the music and community of OverClocked ReMix:

We’re
back from Video Games Live with a vengeance, delivering another
plus-sized episode for your listening pleasure! Street Fighter 2 is the
theme, and we’ve got Shael Riley on board with us for an extended
interview about the latest OC ReMix project, Blood on the Asphalt. The usual suspects Cyan_Ide, Rama, and DrumUltimA are back with their weekly reports, (welcome back, guys!)
and of course we’ve got our other regular features, as well as some
tasty tidbits about video game music on the radio. Finally, ever wonder
if your favorite hosts ever slip up here and there…? Dig it!
[00:00] A timeless mystery: WTF is Ryu saying?!
[00:54] Our hosts are pumped up
for a butt-kickin’, Street Fighter 2-themed show. In fact, with your
help, we’ve fought our way to the top of the music charts on PodcastAlley. So just keep those assists coming and we’ll be one step closer to ‘world champion’!
[04:28] The Rama Report: May results for Dwelling of Duels are in (goat came in first) and June’s DoD theme is Goemon, Mystical Ninja. VGM remixer xoc releases a new, experimental album. zyko has also released a new album of original music, entitled “Survival”, at VGmix. Rama has finished an OCR skin for Winamp 3, but more importantly, has been working with Dhsu on an OCR-skinning and customization project called “OverClocked ReMix ReMix“.
[10:37] ReMix Review: From Metal Slug 2: ‘No Need to Reload‘ by RoeTaKa
… After numerous very close attempts at getting a ReMix on the site,
this was the winner for Roe, and for good reason! This mix is a
high-octane, over-the-top synth rock track that can be easily likened
to the energetic remixes of S.S.H. The gritty and edgy sound might not be everyone’s favorite, but there’s no denying the quality of this one.
[14:27] The Compo Report: A slightly sickly Cyan_Ide encourages us to participate in and vote on various competitions: TOMC13, FLMC2, PRC69, and ORC48. Awwww, snufflenutters! ;_;
[16:56] Video game music and radio? Inconceivable, but it’s true! GameMusicRadio
features 24/7 streaming VGM (American and Japanese), as well as two
radio shows that can be downloaded on demand, much like ours.
Meanwhile, RadioSEGA is a
UK-based internet stream also featuring 24/7 music (of course, only
SEGA tunes) with no talking. If you enjoy our show, give these two
virtual stations a listen.
[19:57] The Meetup Report: Australia meetups
are being developed, with a definite Sydney meetup on July 1st at the
Town Hall steps. Perth and Briz-BUN meetups are also planned for July,
but have not been set in stone.
[23:03] Russian ReMix Roulette:
Will zircon’s fantasy of seven-sharp piano music be fulfilled? What
about pixietricks and her deep-rooted TO bias? The answer is a
resounding “NO”; oh well, even the presence of Tommy Tallarico couldn’t
help our luck, so we don’t feel so bad. Anyway, orkybash‘s mix isn’t bad either – from Final Fantasy 6: ‘Ruined Skies‘.
[31:52] Shael Riley: veteran ReMixer, community hero, and director of the Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo Project, Blood on the Asphalt.
He has joined us for an extensive interview covering the concept of the
project, its history, the ups and downs, and much more. Thanks for the
interview, dude! Awesome job to everyone involved. Also, check out
Shael’s original album, jam packed with ridiculous fun!
[53:01]
VOICEMAIL: Thanks Rama, Rexy, and Fusion2004! As you can see from
Rexy’s example, international callers ARE in fact able to reach our
number. If you’re British, this should work for you:
* Dial the access number for calls to the United States – check here for the number, which sometimes changes once in a while.
*
When it says “please enter the number you would like to call and finish
by pressing the hash (#) button” you just type 00 and THEN the VGDJ
number. In this case it’s 001 800 990 VGDJ (8435 if you can’t see any
letters imprinted on your phone).
* If you hear the VGDJ intro
music followed by our hosts speaking about the answering machine, you
know you’re at the right place.
[55:03] [stinger]

Background music used in Episode 044, in order of appearance:

– ‘New Mexican Thunderbird (T. Hawk Stage)’ by Vurez
– ‘Urban Uppercut (Sagat Stage)’ by bLiNd
– ‘Wallstreet Monster (Blanka Stage)’ by Joshua Morse and Richter
– Azumanga Daioh stuff with the Compo Report
– ‘R U Overdrize (Ryu Stage)’ by AkumajoBelmont and BrainCells
– ‘Home at Last (Dhalism Ending)’ by Malcos
– “Hi, Score! (Ranking Display) by Shael Riley
– Tetris ‘McVaffe Quasi UltiMix’ by McVaffe
– ‘Flying Heaven (Fei Long Stage)’ by zircon
– ‘Reaching for Nirudha (Dhalism Stage)’ by Malcos
– ‘Thank You, Dee Jay (Dee Jay Stage)’ by José the Bronx Rican
– ‘Made in USA (Ken Stage)’ by Sixto Sounds
– ‘I Don’t Fight Boys (Chun-Li Stage) by Red Tailed Fox and Malcos
– ‘Ending Credits Mix (Staff Roll)’ by Damien Krauss

* Note – all tracks aside from the Azumanga Daioh music and Quasi UltiMix are from the SSF2 PROJECT, of course. :>