So I had this idea a while back for a musical version of the party game “Telephone”. The first round of this game has started: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=91247.
Signups are still open until we get near the end of the list, since it’ll take us a while to get down that far, but I don’t want to really exclude anyone immediately. Depending on how terrible this ends up, we might do a second round after it’s over.

VIDEO GAMES LIVE™ RETURNS TO THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL WITH A SPECTACULAR NEW SHOW SEPTEMBER 21, 2006

Featuring Live Orchestral Excerpts of the New Halo® 3 Score

Special Musical Guests to Include BT, Steve Vai, Dweezil Zappa, Video Game Pianist Martin Leung, Game Composers, and More

Off
the heels of sold-out shows around the world, renowned video game
composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall are bringing their immersive
concert celebrating video games back to the world-famous Hollywood Bowl
for the second time on September 21, 2006.
The new Video Games Live™ concert features music from the most popular
video games performed by top orchestras and choirs, combining exclusive
video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo
performers, electronic percussionists, and groundbreaking interactive
segments to create an explosive one-of-a-kind entertainment experience.

Klayton and Celldweller have announced a Celldweller Remixing
Competition which will start mid-September. For the uninitiated,
Celldweller is an independant electronic/rock band created as a musical
outlet for the former Circle of Dust frontman Klay Scott (now just
Klayton). Read more for more info.
From remix.celldweller.com:
“Prizes for contest winners consist of software packages from Apple’s Logic Pro, Native Instruments and Cakewalk’s
Dimension
Pro and Rapture, Gear Cards from Guitar Center, music accessories,
digital distribution and web hosting via CD Baby, clothing
and accessories from FIXT Clothing and custom engraved Video iPod’s with the entire Celldweller Audio & Video catalog
pre-loaded. Winning mixes will also appear on an upcoming Celldweller Remix CD from FIXT (FixtMusic.Com), Klayton’s new

music/clothing label.“

Please visit http://www.remix.celldweller.com to check it out!

After noticing a few errors in the latest SNESMusic rips of Chrono
Trigger and the Prerelease, I decided to undertake my own ripping
project for Chrono fans. Along the way, I discovered a few more errors
that have been a fixture of every rip to date, and also made various
improvements to the soundtracks. This should, in theory, be the last
time you have to download the spc soundtracks for these games. Download
CT here and CTP here. Click “read more” to learn about the changes.
CHRONO TRIGGER

——————————————————————————-
2.) Improvements Over Past Releases
——————————————————————————-

In
past releases of Chrono Trigger spcs, several songs were mishandled and
certain parts were omitted. These have been corrected in this release.

02 Chrono Trigger (part two)

In
past releases, part two starts immediately with the lead melody. In the
game however, part one ends and part two truly begins a second or two
earlier with sweeping strings. The rip is now complete with the
inclusion of this intro.

27 People Who Threw Away the Will to Live

The quirks of the SNES (on and off the actual console) cause an instrument in
this song to randomly assume two higher pitches. These two variants are
included here, the first time they appear in official release.

28a Lavos’s Theme

Prior rippers were not quick enough to capture the cymbals in the intro. They
appear for the first time here.

61 Last Battle

Something within the latest SNESAmp causes the volume of the main synths in
this song to mute considerably after the piece begins. The cause is unknown,
and the track sounds fine within other spc players. Strangely, the rip of this
track included in this archive is somehow tagged or otherwise modified to avoid
the bug. It comes from an old SNESMusic.org rip; their current one suffers from
the volume drop.

~

Certain songs within the current SNESMusic.org rip are not included here. For
the sake of education, they are listed here with reasons.

2-22b Magus’s Castle (With Bats) – The bats are not a normal part of this song,
and appear in Chrono Trigger as a looping sound effect. It is easy to
accidentally include them in the rip if it is done at the entrace to Magus’s
Lair.

se04 Prison Tower (Variant) – This is just Prison Tower, albeit starting at
0:35.

se11 Tsunami, se13 Fall of Mt. Woe – There is no reason to separate these, as
they can be ripped as one track.

se06 Computer Active, se07 Intruder Alarm, se17 Blackbird Crashes,
se22 Ozzie Laughs, se23 Ozzie Falls – These are all sound effects, and are not
found in the game’s music data.

~

You can download both Chrono Trigger’s normal sound effects and battle sound
effects by following this link:

http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Miscellaneous_(Chrono_Trigger).html

——————————————————————————-
3.) Songs Renamed
——————————————————————————-

A few songs were renamed after a new translation was undertaken.

09 Longing of the Wind was originally Wind Scene.
16 A Prayer to the Travelers was originally A Prayer to the Road That Leads.
29 The Final Day of the World was originally The Day the World Revived.

——————————————————————————-
4.) Imperfect Songs
——————————————————————————-

02 Chrono Trigger

Part one and part two cannot be linked in one file. However, this is possible
with the Chrono Trigger Prelease, as the song did appear as one spc stream in
that game. Please download the CTP archive at

http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Music_(CTP)

19 Frog’s Theme

Though not imperfect by the game’s standards, Frog’s Theme can only be found
complete on the OSV.

22a The Hidden Truth

This song cannot be linked in one file with The Hidden Truth – Finale.

48 Singing Mountain

On the OSV, more wind can be heard before the actual song starts.

82b Inside the Shell (Approaching)

If one walks up to the Lavos core, it takes ten seconds for the full
acceleration of the song to occur. Since this effect relies on successive
SongSpeed commands and varies by player path, it cannot be ripped. It was
approximated in this spc set by a SongSpeed command raising “Inside the Shell”
to maximum over roughly ten seconds (a duration of FF in the command).

CHRONO TRIGGER PRE-RELEASE

——————————————————————————-
2.) Differences with the Final Version
——————————————————————————-

002 Longing of the Wind – The bass is absent.
003 Corridors of Time – The arrangement is rough.
004 Rhythm of Wind, Sky, and Earth – Different drum instruments are used.
005 Ruined World – The clanging bells have a high pitch.
009 Zeal Palace – The song’s instrumentation is incomplete.
013 Lavos’s Theme – Among other changes, the bass and ending are different.
016 Manoria Cathedral – The choras is stronger in the mix.
020 Schala’s Theme – The main lead is buried in the mix.
021 Delightful Spekkio – The flute does not fade note to note.
024 Chrono Trigger – This is the full song! In the final game, this song is
stored within one music offset, but the second part can only be triggered
through a certain event command. This precludes ripping it as one song on
the final. Be thankful it was left on the Pre-Release!
031 A Strange Happening – The instrumentation is rough, and the bells are
faded.
035 The Hidden Truth – Instrumentation is different and the intro is longer.
046 Mystery of the Past – The song lasts longer due to an added chorus.
052 Lavos Heartbeat and Grunt – The grunt is absent from the final game.
053 Earthquake – The ambience is different.
057 Lavos’s Theme (Day of Lavos Video) – In the final version, this is stored
with the regular Lavos’s Theme music, and can only be accessed through an
event command. On the Pre-Release, it gets its own song offset.
062 The Brink of Time – The song is clearly pitched higher.

Many other songs are minutely different from their counterparts in the final
game. The volume of some songs on whole or certain instruments varies between
versions, and other subtle details.

It is also worth noting that “045 People Who Threw Away the Will to Live” has
three variations, just as it does in the final version of Chrono Trigger.
The quirks of the SNES (on and off the actual console) cause an instrument in
this song to randomly assume two higher pitches.

~

Certain songs within the current Pre-Release SNESMusic.org rip are not included
here. For the sake of education, they are listed here with reasons.

39b – Confusing Melody (Bats) – There are no bats here. Someone accidentally
ripped them with the song at Magus’s Castle.

se06 Computer Active, se07 Intruder Alarm – These are sound effects, not to be
found within the game’s music data.

se12 Earthquake – There is no Earthquake, just Earthquake (Variant) in the
Prerelease ROM.

~

You can download both Chrono Trigger’s normal sound effects and battle sound
effects by following this link:

http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Miscellaneous_(Chrono_Trigger).html

——————————————————————————-
3.) Songs Not Appearing in the Final Version
——————————————————————————-

Certain songs simply don’t exist in the final version, apparently scrapped
before release.

014 Untitled – The purpose of this song is totally unknown. In the future, the
Compendium plans to ask Yasunori Mitsuda at his site what this was to be used
for. It is possible that a Nobuo Uematsu song replaced it in the final.

040 Tyrano Lair (Unused) – As the name suggests, this was the Tyrano Lair music
before Nobuo Uematsu’s own work replaced it.

068 Battle 1 (Rough Version) – Battle 1 is most certainly in the final game.
However, two alternate, slightly-slower versions exist in the Pre-Release ROM.

069 Battle 1 (Different Instrumentation) – This is the other version.

——————————————————————————-
4.) Imperfect Songs
——————————————————————————-

19 Frog’s Theme

Though not imperfect by the game’s standards, Frog’s Theme can only be found
complete on the OSV.

22a The Hidden Truth

This song cannot be linked in one file with The Hidden Truth – Finale.

48 Singing Mountain

On the OSV, more wind can be heard before the actual song starts.

82b Inside the Shell (Approaching)

This rip is totally complete except for a version of “Lavos Heartbeat and
Grunt” which speeds up. Compare to “Inside the Shell” from Chrono Trigger. If
you recall, as you approach Lavos before the final battle, the song reaches a
fever pitch. Currently, Temporal Flux cannot edit the Pre-Release, so we cannot
replicate this effect with a SongSpeed command in a controlled environment.

When VGMix went down, my music pages became 30% broken links. I’ve scrounged up about 2/3 of all Chrono Series VGMixes for download to correct this. Find ’em at http://cc.herograw.org/Black/VGM/ . If you have any missing tracks (listed at the text doc at that URL), upload them or something. Also, it bears repeating — Virt, someone trolled with my name after VGMix 2 went down. I’m apparently not banned anymore, so I hope you saw the message at OUS about this. Secondly, SNESMusic just released new CT and CTP .spc archives. It seems there are problems, though. For the full list, read the extended text. The Chrono Compendium’s putting together a rip right now that should be done as soon as we a.) retranslate the song names (current translation dates from 1995 🙁 ) and b.) figure out why the left stereo on “Final Battle” is muting.
Problems with the new rips:

CHRONO TRIGGER

1-02b Chrono Trigger (Finale) – Starts a couple seconds after the actual beginning of this song.
2-04 People Without Hope – Two variants of this song are missing.
2-05b Lavos’s Theme (Extended) – Misses the hi-hats that play at the beginning of this song.
2-22b Magus’s Castle (Bats) – The bats are a sound effect. Whoever was ripping this must have accidentally got them too.
3-14 Last Battle – Left stereo mutes after beginning until the main part of the song comes in. Still trying to figure this one out.
se04 Prison Tower (Variant) – Same as Prison Tower; it just starts at 0:35 in the real song.
se06 Computer Active – This is a sound effect, and isn’t in the game’s music data.
se07 Intruder Alarm – Ditto sound effect.
se11 & se13 – No reason to separate these, as they can be ripped in one track.
se17 Blackbird Crashes – Ditto sound effect.
se22 Ozzie Laughs – Ditto sound effect.
se23 Ozzie Falls – Ditto sound effect.

CHRONO TRIGGER PRERELEASE

39b – Confusing Melody (Bats) – Same as above; there are no bats here. Someone accidentally ripped them with the song at Magus’s Castle.
se06 Computer Active – Ditto sound effect.
se07 Intruder Alarm – Ditto sound effect.
se12 Earthquake – There is no Earthquake, just Earthquake (Variant) in the Prerelease ROM.

~

The Compendium’s putting together an all-star rip to correct these problems. We’re still puzzled about the mute in the “Final Battle” song, so if you’ve tinkered with .spcs before, stop by and read the diagnosis here. As for those sound effect, the Compendium has both sets (normal and battle) ripped here. Also, if you can retranslate CT’s track list, let me know. We’re having a hard time finding someone.

dexdigital releases another podcast — Nintendo 8-bit Rap Mixtape!

Here’s the tracklist.

• Dabrye f/ J Dilla (RIP) and Phat Kat – Game Over
• Oh No – The Ride, with a Ninja Gaiden I intro – (yessssssss)
• Yo Gotti – North Memphis Freestyle (Pac-Man sample)
• CX Kidtronik f/ Agallah (Purple City) – Whut T’Hell Wit Y’all
• Cocoa Brovaz – Supa Brooklyn (SMB1 Sample)
• and a bonus Erykah Badu remix. (listen until the end)

dexdigital is also recruiting people of the OC ReMix community to help with Mixtape Vol. 2! Sign up if you can do it!

Mixtape: http://mixtapeshow.net/0728/episode-43-nintendo-mixtape/
Thread @ OCR: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=88417

So I knew this was being worked on, but I didn’t know it had actually been COMPLETED (almost a month ago) until the review popped up on slashdot today, so maybe other people missed it to.
The slashdo review mentioned that about half the songs are pretty eh, but the other half is excellent, though they didn’t mention which tracks specifically. When I talked to Shael about it earlier today he pretty much said the same thing.

The most notable songs on the compilation however is a track by Shael himself and another by Mythril Nazgul (as myf). If you listen to nothing else from this compilation, listen to both of those because I’ve heard them and they are both EXCELLENT.

The entire compilation can be downloaded here:
http://www.rhymetorrents.com/

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!

A recent email from Video Games Live has made a few announcements and one of it’s biggest, it’s online store; is now open. The store can be found here.
Also taken from the email was a quote about their progress on DVD’s or soundtracks for VGL!

“A lot of people have asked us about VGL DVD’s or soundtracks. We are currently working on this and have been filming and recording all of our shows. We hope to have something out by the end of the year. We’ll definitely keep you posted.”

for more information visit http://www.videogameslive.com/

From http://www.play-symphony.com:

JMP Productions announced today that Nintendo’s famous video game
composer Koji Kondo is going to attend the world-premiere of PLAY! A
Video Game Symphony on May 27, 2006, in Chicago at the Rosemont
Theatre. His attendance includes some exciting surprises for his fans
to be revealed at a later time. Nobuo Uematsu’s music from Blue Dragon will be performed exclusively for the
first time at PLAY!’s premiere in Chicago on Saturday, May 27, 2006. The
video game is designed by Final Fantasy series originator Hironobu Sakaguchi.
The presentation of Blue Dragon at the concert will include never seen before
visuals from the highly-anticipated Xbox 360 title. PLAY! A Video Game Symphony
is a symphony concert world-tour featuring music from a catalogue of blockbuster
video game titles.

Koji Kondo is one of the most highly-acclaimed video game music
composers in the world. His songs are certainly memorable; the SUPER
MARIO BROS. theme song is still a mainstream icon 20 years after it was
written and about as recognized as a 1980’s pop song. Kondo’s music has
been cited as being as integral to the Nintendo style as the game
design of Shigeru Miyamoto.

Blue Dragon is an RPG developed by veterans of the video game industry, bringing
together Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi with Dragon Ball creator Akira
Toriyama providing character designs, and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu
contributing the soundtrack.

Says Jason Michael Paul: “We are pulling
out all the stops for this once in a lifetime event at the PLAY! premiere. Come
be a part of what promises to be a show of many firsts in the US and worldwide
for that matter. I am just truly grateful to have the opportunity to give a
sneak peek to one of the most anticipated video games that the world has ever
seen. The inclusion of Blue Dragon into the program only further legitimizes
this concert as being the marquee event of the year.”.

All tickets for
the world-premiere of PLAY! including the VIP meet and greet are available at
the box office, Ticketmaster locations, on the
internet at www.ticketmaster.com/artist/1009980.
Video game composers
Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Koji Kondo, Jeremy Soule, Akira Yamaoka, Yuzo
Koshiro, Jason Hayes and Marty O’Donnell will attend the VIP meet and greet in
Chicago.