ThaSauce Development Update

What’s going on with VGMix? OverLooked ReMix? ReMix:ThaSauce? Compoverse?

Hi. Hello. Is this thing on? It’s been a while since I’ve made a post on this site.

The days of using ThaSauce.net as a news portal have been behind us for a while, but development on ThaSauce websites has been active for some time. Over the years we’ve inherited a lot of your favorite sites and with them a lot of responsibility. We get a number of questions from time-to-time about the status is of a particular website. The answer is always the same: It’s…coming along. There’s a larger, overarching plan we’re working on and I think I’ve explained it enough times in enough places to finally sit down and write it out. So here it goes…

A bit of history…

Before we can talk about everything that we plan on doing, let me take a short moment to talk about how we got here. What originally started out in 2005 as an idea to make a VGM news portal, eventually tacked on “yet another arrangement site” and then a compo portal? Now things are just out of control.

As mentioned above ThaSauce Network currently consists of this site “ThaSauce.net”, ReMix:ThaSauce, Compoverse (our rebranding of Compo:ThaSauce), OverLooked ReMiX (officially handed to us by richter), VGMix Archive for all known files from former VGMix sites, and a version of VGMix (currently called VG(Re)Mix) based on the vision of the would-be new site as laid out by virt.

The story of OverLooked ReMiX is a pretty short one: richter is just too busy these days and wanted to hand it off to someone who would maintain it. We control the hosting, domains, the full gamut. Future development of the site is…difficult as it’s so closely tied to a particular version of PhpBB and software updates have gotten even harder. We’re describing the current status of the site as “archival,” which basically means it is in a read-only state for the foreseeable future.

The story of VGMix is a more complicated one. In 2013 we started development on what we were initially calling “VGMix 4”. Users had been asking when a new version of VGMix would pop up, and some had even tried to roll out their own, but we decided we’d take the responsibility onto us. After reaching out to virt and getting his ideas for what a new version of VGMix would look like, we went to work. There were a lot of details about VGMix that virt had envisioned, but the basis was this:

  1. Users should be able to upload their own tracks, freely, whenever they want. This includes completed tracks and works-in-progress (or WIPs).
  2. Users should be able to provide feedback to each other for the above tracks.
  3. Users should be able to host impromptu compos on demand.
  4. Users should be able to fully host and release album projects on the site, including submitting applications, WIPs, and feedback.

Much of our vision for the future development of all the sites revolve around these goals and, ultimately, VGMix will likely be the center of this “network.”

The Vision

So VGMix is the cornerstone of the future, but where does that leave all of the other sites? In the current vision for the future, each site plays a role in a sort of “music development pipeline”. A process to take a beginner musician to, potentially, a full video game music composer. Here’s the breakdown:

Compoverse

Everything starts with Compoverse. For the uninitiated, Compoverse is where we host “compos,” or music composition competitions. As the site explains:

Compo is a slang word for “composition competition” commonly used by the arrangement community. It is derived from the demoscene competitions by the same name.

Contrary to this, compos are less of a competition and more of an exercise in composition abilities. Each compo has its own unique format and guidelines and while some are as short as 1 hour, others can last anywhere from a month to a few months.

It’s important to remember that the primary purpose of compos is to hone your skills and abilites by working within, sometimes very constricting, guidelines. These techniques have proven essential to the growth of countless musicians.

Remember: the only way to lose a compo is to not participate.

The site currently hosts about 7 compos on weekly or monthly schedules. One particular compo, One Hour Compo, has been hosted every week for over 10 years. During these compos, users work on tracks, following a particular theme, under a constricting time-limit. In many cases after the compo is completed we host a live listening party on our community Discord server, and users can get live peer review. This process has been invaluable to the growth of countless musicians throughout the years, including VGM composers virt and Danny Baranowski.

Compoverse offers new users an opportunity to develop experience with new tools and techniques and receive live feedback. Additionally, it challenges veteran users to try new things and streamline their workflow.

Compoverse will continue to offer a small number of “ThaSauce-hosted”, regularly scheduled compos. Additionally, the system will be expanded to offer a number of new features to admins that will also allow us to white-label the service to other compo communities. Making it easier for admins of all compos to host and administer regularly scheduled compos anywhere they desire.

VGMix (Part 1: WIPs/Compos)

Once users gain some confidence and experience it’s time to move on to VGMix. Here, users will be able to submit WIPs of more full-featured game arrangements and receive feedback. Additionally, users can join, or create, impromptu compos. These compos can be created by anyone, at any time, and is a great opportunity for a few friends to quickly jump in, create some constraints, host their files, and even have a live on-site listening party.

VGMix (Part 2: Releases)

Once users are comfortable with the feedback they received from WIPs, users will be able to convert their track from a work-in-progress to an actual released track. Once released they can continue to receive private critique, or simply receive public comments like “This song is great!” Users will receive on-site “Achievements” as they progress as artists to help encourage them to keep working as well as try new things. Additionally, VGMix will provide templates to allow for easy submissions to other arrangement sites including ReMix:ThaSauce, OverLooked ReMix, and even OverClocked ReMix.

ReMix:ThaSauce

ReMix:ThaSauce will maintain a similar position to where it has previously been: a bridge between self-released tracks and submission to a curated platform. Users will be able to submit tracks, that will be evaluated by panel, for an opportunity to be included within the curated collection. Consider this to be a badge of pride for user growth.

OverLooked ReMiX

OverLooked ReMix will continue to do exactly what it excels in: provide ridiculous interpretations of video game music and video game culture. Users that want to create joke, parody, or just simply outlandish tracks will be able to submit them here. Again, songs will be evaluated by a panel of passionate administrators for an opportunity to be included within that collection.

OverClocked ReMix

Though not within ThaSauce Network, OCReMix’s existence can’t be ignored. It has long been the center of the video game arrangement community and it too is included within the overall vision of our future development.

As it has always been OCReMix remains the “pinnacle” of achievement within the VGM community. A mountain for users to climb, and conquer along their journey. As previously mentioned, VGMix will work to not only prepare but also help facilitate users’ transition to OverClocked ReMix releases by hosting their tracks and providing them with formatted submission templates. This will, hopefully, make the process easier not only for users of both sites, but also administrators at OCReMix.

VGMix (Part 3: Albums)

Once users have confidence, experience, and prestige, they can move on to creating and participating in full album releases on VGMix. These can be solo albums or collaborative albums. VGMix will facilitate gathering of private feedback, providing consistent MP3 tags, and of course file hosting. Users will be free to host these final releases anywhere, but VGMix will hopefully make the process of collaborating on, and creating full-length albums much easier.

The Process

Whew. Now that we have all that outlined, how do we get there? Over the years we’ve amassed a number of incredibly talented developers, musicians, graphic designers, and other experts to help outline and flesh out our goals. We have a very clear process in mind and we’re confident we can achieve it. It all starts with what we’re calling Akatosh in development.

In the Elder Scrolls lore Akatosh is the name of the Dragon God of Time. The chief deity of the Divines. In ThaSauce development Akatosh represents the backbone of our infrastructure. Users, songs, albums, compos, all exist on Akatosh.

Under the hood, most of these sites follow a very similar structure:

  • A song is posted on the site
  • The song is “owned” by a user or a group of users (bands, etc)
  • These songs can be organized under a grouping (album, compo round, etc).

In the Akatosh system, a song on VGMix isn’t very different from a song on Compoverse or a song on OverLooked ReMix. The difference is the flourishes, and the presentation. All sites will be powered by Akatosh, and users of all the sites will have a single, unified, ThaSauce Network login account. One big community, spanning a number of websites.

Where are we now? What’s the timeline?

Given the nature of the system, it doesn’t look like anything has been done, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of our time up until now has been focused on the underlying Akatosh system and structure, so there isn’t much “front-facing” progress. Admittedly as well, we are all employed full-time and very busy with our personal lives. So where are we actually and what are the next steps?

Right now, the Akatosh system is in a pretty solid place as far as structure and efficiency. We’re comfortable with the foundations we’ve laid out, and we’re ready to move on to incorporating actual, useable sites into the system. Compoverse is currently our most active site and, as a result, will be one of the first sites to be integrated into the new system. If you’ve followed the site recently you know that it has been in active development for a bit over a year. The current iteration of the PHP site is at the end-of-life for new features and any new development for the site will be moved to the new platform. This also includes the conversion of all the existing songs, compos, and users to the new system. This will take time as we’re rebuilding the site from scratch, but the timeline here, realistically, will be months, not years, as we continue.

There is also a chance you will see a version of ReMix:ThaSauce pop up soon after, or even before Compoverse. R:TS is one of the simpler, smaller sites, and would be a very straightforward transition. It’s also a great opportunity to test some of the data migration with a small, static dataset.

Conclusion

Still with me? Ok, good. Whew, that was a lot. So I guess what I’m trying to say is we’re still here. We’re still alive. We’re still passionate about the community, and we’re still working really hard to help the community continue to grow, evolve, and thrive in the modern, post-YouTube/Soundcloud internet. It’s been a long road, with a lot of changes and iterations, but we’re not going anywhere any time soon. Hopefully, hopefully, we’ll have some of you along for the ride to see everything through to the end. We’ll get there, and we’re getting closer every day.

ThaSauce Presents: One Hour Compo OHC #400

ThaSauce Network is excited to announce a milestone event in our community’s history — the 400th round of One Hour Compo, hosted by starla. Compos (short for “composition competitions”) are competitions for musicians who want to “think outside the box” and challenge themselves.

Here’s how it works. One Hour Compo happens every Thursday at 9PM EST. Every week, a new theme is announced, and participants are encouraged to remix a track based on their interpretation of the theme. They are given one hour to create, complete, and submit their tracks — after that, submissions are off to voting! The event ends with a listening party featuring the week’s top submissions.

The 400th compo round will happen on June 9th at 9pm EST, and you can RSVP to the Facebook event to stay updated. Musicians of all skill levels are invited to join in. There is no requirements for OHC, other than wanting to participate and have a good time creating good music. We encourage everyone to join, and help us make the 4ooth one a compo to remember!

 

ThaSauce’s One Hour Compos Every Thursday @ 9 PM EST


With the excitement of MAGFest winding down, we would like to make a formal reminder that ThaSauce holds a weekly compo every Thursday at 6 PM PST/9 EST by none other than our very own resident awesome lady, starla. We cannot stress enough that these compos are for everybody; the goal of One Hour Compos is to improve songwriting skills with these weekly hourly exercises as everyone is encouraged to participate and bring friends. Discussion is held in on irc.esper.net during the compo, but we also listen to the completed songs as a group. If you do not wish to participate in the chat, you may still submit a song via the website.

“Well… what in the world is a compo?”

Compo is a slang word for “composition competition” commonly used by the arrangement community. It is derived from the demoscene competitions by the same name. Contrary to this, compos are less of a competition and more of an exercise in composition abilities. Each compo has it’s own unique format and guidelines and while some are as short as 1 hour, others can last anywhere from a month, to a few months. It’s important to remember that the primary purpose of compos are to hone your skills and abilities by working within, sometimes very constricting, guidelines. These techniques have proven essential to the growth of countless musicians.

A (very) brief history of compos as related to ThaSauce

There has always been a need for musicians in our community to gather and practice. Even before our community, trackers arranged compos of their own and created tiny limited-sample MOD files with amazing results. Composition and technique has always been a priority in compos over wowing people with instrumentation. With so many random compos across communities, it was always a bit difficult knowing when they were, where they were and if they were actually going on. Once we got everyone in the right place, normally an IRC channel, we would write a song either based on a theme, free for all or maybe even remix based on a provided source tune.  Once completed, we would email all the results to a participant that had webspace who would archive the compo and host it for download, then participants would have to manually download the compo pack and finally listen to them in order. We would do this often in with a group of motivated musicians, eager to hone their skill.

The creative progression of ThaSauce’s One Hour Compo, as told by starla:

“As always I do what I do out of passion. I don’t mean to nag or annoy. I encourage others to reach their full potential, and to stop putting off to tomorrow what you can start today. You can’t wake up one day and be an accomplished musician without taking that first step and starting on your journey.”

One Hour Compo is typically an “all gear” compo, which means you can use any instruments at your disposal, as long as you submit an mp3 at the end.  OHC is also themed: more often than not a text theme is provided, from time to time a picture or other media can be used to stimulate the artists’ creativity. All in all, One Hours Compos really attempts to push you as a musician, as the time constraint forces people to work outside of their comfort zone and come up with new streamlined processes that ultimately come to benefit their musicianship. 171 compos later, we are still going strong. Please come join us tomorrow in an effort to challenge yourself as a musician or even to just preview what ThaSauce’s OHC can offer — we will definitely welcome you with open arms.

 

Double Interview: New EPs by Amphibious and ProjektZero

I recently got the chance to interview Amphibious and ProjektZero about their respective EP releases: Oceans and Getting to Know You. Both artists have associations with the arrangement community, so I asked them each about the stories behind the making of their tracks, their influences and how creative competitions have affected their work.

Amphibious – Oceans EP

Amphibious has gained a reputation for creating ambient, chilled music with fluid movement. To that end, his release Oceans is a concept EP, specifically referencing a journey through the sea as a topic. Amphibious explained his motivations for exploring a musical narrative. “I’ve always been told my songs remind people of water for some reason, and the ideas I came up with definitely had that vibe, so I decided to add a theme to my EP. It also sort of fits with the name Amphibious, which is cool too.”

Work on the album began in early June and continued over the summer. He stated that, “I’d been experimenting with music a lot over the last year or so. I got Komplete in May for my birthday, and I spent a few weeks learning the various things in the package. But for the most part, the songs I started never did get finished. One of my roommates and I were talking about how I didn’t really see many through to the end, so I decided I’d take this summer as an opportunity to change that. I sat down and got some ideas ready. That is when I started to work on my new songs for the EP.”

Meteo Xavier contributed the EP’s artwork. Amphibious initially created a cover image himself, and related an anecdote to that effect: “I knew my artwork was bad when I originally made it, but I figured something quick and shoddy would be better than nothing. I got a few comments on OC ReMix about how bad it was; Meteo in particular wanted to redo it himself and I guess he decided to whip something up quick. I’m really happy with it, he did it pretty quickly but it’s infinitely better than what I had before.  Many thanks to him.”

When asked about the contributing factors to his musical style, Amphibious noted that “This particular album had a lot of influence from David Arkenstone. He did a lot of world and Celtic music such as the tavern music in World of Warcraft, but he released a chillout album that I absolutely love. ‘Plunge’ in particular draws influence from that.  I would also say the Metroid Prime soundtrack has had some influence on me as well.”

The track “Pelagic Fortress” on the EP started off as an entry for a composition competition.  Amphibious shared his thoughts on time-constrained musical gatherings: “When I first heard about compo, it seemed like a cool idea, but two hours sounded so short.  However once I tried it, I was pretty amazed at what I could come up with in such a short time frame. ‘Pelagic Fortress’ in particular fit the theme of my album very well. Overall the compos definitely have helped me with efficiency. And having a theme given to you is sometimes a helpful way to come up with new ideas.”

Oceans EP is currently available at Bandcamp for free, or pay-what-you-want pricing. Amphibious is pleased with the response to the release, noting that “I’d still consider myself a bit of an amateur, and there have been some fair criticisms, but some people have really enjoyed my stuff and I’m very pleased with that.”

ProjektZero – Getting to Know You

Matt “ProjektZero” Rittinghouse identifies with the nerdcore scene, though his music has recently gravitated away from his rap roots and toward groove-based, melodic pop songwriting. His EP carries a unifying concept, as he expressed that “the theme with Getting to Know You is that I wanted each song to provide some glimpse at me as a person, or the things I feel. ‘Loop On’ deals with relationships; ‘331’ and ‘Mannequins’ deal with friendships and isolation; ‘The Stand’ deals with my geekier tendencies; and ‘Fake It’ deals with this sort of transition out from my teenage years.”

Untested Methods and zircon are credited with mixing on specific tracks. Matt explained how these collaborations came about: “I met Eric (Methods) at Nerdapalooza 2010. I’m a huge fan of a lot of his remixes, but I’m probably a bigger fan of the chiptune-infused synthpop style he has developed in his independent work. He and I are both music production geeks that use FL Studio, so we’ve been chatting fairly regularly since Nerdapalooza, and we’ve tried several efforts at collaboration along the way. This was just the first one that made it to a finalized, published product.”

Matt considers zircon and the OC ReMix community to be a great motivation and influence on his production. He elaborated on zircon’s contribution to the EP: “I’ve had zircon on my contacts list since he did a series of FL Studio production tutorials a few years back. I had been struggling very, very hard to mix ‘The Stand’. I’d worked on it for eight hours a day, for three days straight, and had finally just fallen into despair over mixing the song. So I shot zircon a message, and he graciously offered to help me out. He pretty much saved that track from falling apart.”

Getting to Know You includes a cover version of a song by Brad Turcotte called “Fake It”. Matt expressed his desire was to cover this song, and include it on the EP. “Through my old school nerdcore ways, I’m hip to a place called SongFight, where Brad is a regular competitor. I feel like I’m a broken record for saying it, but I’m a huge fan of his work, and his entire album Out of It is absolutely classic to me. I specifically chose ‘Fake It’ because I felt like it sort of encapsulated the changes that I went through in college. I think that song feels like every twenty-something’s anthem.”

JG Hollowell, also known as Mithurn, provided the second rhythm guitar heard on “Loop On”. Matt talked about how they both became acquainted: “JG is an old, old friend of mine. Probably since before I started making music, or at least somewhere around that time frame. I met him through an MMO, but it just so happened that he lived in Charleston close to me. I went off to college, but met back up with him shortly after I graduated.” Matt also remarked on their collaborative process by saying that, “He presents a whole different dynamic to songwriting when I work with him. I can’t just fall back into sequencing; I have to work live. I’m playing guitar and singing, trying to come up with melodies or chords on the spot. He has a lot more of a free jam session background, and I strongly respect that. ‘Loop On’ evolved from a jam between us.”

The track “Mannequins” on the EP originated as a track ProjektZero made for a compo. Matt expressed his thoughts on the composition competition experience, stating  “I absolutely feel that the compos benefited me. I’ve put out six albums since I’ve started doing them. Of course, most of those directly came from the compos. This new EP is more refined, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the compo experience. The advice and the high pressure trial-and-error was just invaluable to shaping my songwriting.” He agreed that the mannequin concept from One Hour Compo was somewhat unusual, but felt that “that’s what was liberating about it. I couldn’t get lost in the theme, specifically because it was obscure. So to really thrive with mannequins as a concept, you had to make it your own. And I think that’s what made that week’s theme probably my favorite one of the entire series so far.”

Getting to Know You is available now at Bandcamp with free or name-your-price options. The cover art was created by Brett Houston.

2010: The Year in ReView

As 2010 draws to a close and 2011 looms on the horizon growing ever closer, now is an appropriate time to look back and reminisce about what made this past year so great. Describing all the myriad events that happened in the world and the universe would take far too long (suffice it to say that there was a particularly notable total lunar eclipse on December 20, being the first such eclipse to fall on a solstice since 1638) so the world of video game music remixing is what we’re going to inspect in this article. Whether it’s OverClocked Remix, ThaSauce, or something not directly associated with the sites or the community, it shall be mentioned. Let the comprehensive guide of 2010’s notable events begin!

First off, January. The year was kicked off with OCR01967, a remix from the game Romancing SaGa 3 entitled “Romancing the Bossa” by OCR veteran Bladiator, AKA Karl Harmdierks. It was the first of many tracks in what was OCR’s tenth birthday. A few days later, ReMix: ThaSauce came out with their first entry of the year, RTS0204, a remix from the infamous game Bad Dudes entitled “My Way Or (Night Version)” by formerly just64helpin and now known as JH Sounds. Also came the first round of the Grand Robot Master Remix Battle, a competition that lasted all the way until June. It produced a lot of great mixes, and tested even the most veteran of remixers. The year was off to a great start.

January faded and February came. With it came the release of Get Acoustic on the fourth, an acoustic jam of The Megas’ 2008 release Get Equipped. The emotional feeling for the disc went from one of energy as with GE to one of somberness. The final track, Lamentations of a War Machine, also had a faster tempo than the GE version. On the 14th came Kaleidoscope, also known as OCRO-0001, the site’s first original soundtrack. A collaboration between Judge Another Soundscape, AKA Mattias Häggström Gerdt and site founder David W. Lloyd, AKA djpretzel, the soundtrack became a huge success. Of course, many tracks were released in this month as well, but none as monumental as those that would be posted in the coming month.

Next up was March, the first month of spring, a month that signals a deliverance from the winter frosts and a rebirth of beauty with the blooming of the trees and flora. On the ides of March, or the 15th, Serious Monkey Business, a Donkey Kong Country 2 remix album, was released.  With it came a few important milestones. The credits remix, entitled “Re-Skewed”, was posted as OCR02000, the two-thousandth mix to be posted on the site. It was also by David Wise, Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland, three veteran Rare composers, and Wise was the composer for the soundtrack. To have him remix a track was an honor for the site, and for it to be one of his own tracks was a great way to show that the composers support the community all the way. Another one of the tracks to be posted was entitled “Dance of the Zinger” and was by Jake Kaufman, also known as virt. Several years previous virt and djpretzel had a falling out that caused virt to create his own site known as VGMix. He returned with OCR02005, a glorious dance remix of Flight of the Zinger and returned with style. This wouldn’t be the only remix of his posted this year.

April brought with it the release of “What If This CD…Had Lyrics?” on the 26th. YouTube sensation brentalfloss was well-known for his series of “With Lyrics” videos, each being a remix of some classic gaming tune, but with lyrics. This was his first full album, and it was a great one. Featuring songs from his YouTube archives and others exclusive to the album, it was a perfect melding of old and new and incited nostalgia fits among gamers of all ages. The very next day brought with the the pixietricks/zircon collab (wife and husband team Jillian and Andy Aversa, respectively) “Time to Oil Up,” a remix of Hakan’s Theme from Super Street Fighter IV, which was released on the same day. The only reason this is notable is because it’s the first, and currently only, time that a remix was released on the same day as the game that the source track belongs to.

May had the usual song releases, and on the seventh a Mega Man fan film was released using two Megas songs in its credits roll. It also brought a monumental event in OCR’s history. Just as 2010 brought with it an old anniversary (OCR turned ten), a new one had found its genesis on May 30th. Site founder Lloyd got married to his long-time love Anna Ziskind, thus inspiring congratulatory wishes from all forum visitors, and also a few jokes and the new husband’s expense. This didn’t affect the site in any way, thankfully, as Lloyd kept his schedule just as it was before marriage. The only difference was that he was noticeably happier.

June came, and Essence of Lime was released on the 18th. Originally a solo effort by Ben Hoffman, alias Hylian Lemon, others quickly latched on to the idea of an Oracle of Ages remix album and joined forces with Hoffman. The album was a rousing success, despite the fact that several websites mislabeled it as an Ocarina of Time remix album. It even reached into the world of the game Minecraft, with a small blurb reading “Goddamn Ess. of Lime is badass to listen to.” Plans were quickly made for a companion album, then untitled (now known as Lime of the Season). This one would be an Oracle of Seasons remix album, for Ages can’t be remixed without Seasons. Unfortunately with the joy of the release came sadness as well. VGMix, the brainchild of Kaufman, had died. Dwelling of Duels, a well known monthly competition hosted on VGMix had vanished with its host. Luckily, a lot of people worked to give DoD a proper site, and can now be found at dwellingofduels.net.

>July came and with it, heat. The 4th, known as Independence Day here in America, had a rare quadruple mixpost under the guise of Four for the Fourth. All Sonic remixes, they were lapped up quickly. halc, alias Drew Wheeler, tried his best to remix Labyrinth Zone from the original Sonic and succeeded, and Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2 was received warmly and remixed well by PrototypeRaptor, also known as Jonathan Paulsen.  Joshua Morse took on the iconic Ice Cap Zone from Sonic 3 and blew it out of the park, and Level 99, alias Stevo Bortz, took on the Doomsday Zone theme from Sonic and Knuckles. On July 29th came OCRO-0002, the site’s second original soundtrack release. This one was for Trenches, a comical World War I-era tug-of-war style iOS game with some elaboration to make it quite unique. The music was done by OCR forum regular Abadoss, AKA Kenneth Keynes, and his brother Troy. It went extremely well for the two, and was downloaded en masse.

August was a bit of a moody month. On August 15th, a preview of an Armored Core tribute album entitled The Answer was released. It was quite well received. On the 19th, remixing veteran Geoffrey Taucer, alias Jeremy Waters, left the community to pursue his dream job. He promised to check in from time to time, a promise he has kept, but a sad day nonetheless. And then, on August 28th came the unthinkable. The well-known double act between  Duane Zuwala and Brandon Lackey known as The Adventures of Duane and BrandO was dead. The two had split up, showing some distance between the two. Lackey would continue his own solo act entitled The Amazing BrandO, and Zuwala would remain as Duane’s Action-Adventure World. It was tragic, but time moves on…

September came and if anyone wanted to be woken up when it ended, their slumber was stopped a bit early. The well-known One Hour Compo had it’s hundredth installment on the second. On the 15th came the first of five Final Fantasy V remix albums. Directed by DarkeSword, alias Shariq Ansari, this one was entitled Wind. It featured 9 tracks from remixing vets such as Sixto Sounds, AeroZ, and DarkeSword himself. This series would be the first album Ansari had directed since Rise of the Star in 2005. It was released to stellar acclaim, and left fans salivating for the next installment, Water, in early 2011.

October brought more autumnal weather, and with it a few milestones as well. The game Shantae: Risky’s Revenge was released on DSiWare on the 4th, with a soundtrack scored by none other than virt. A remix from the game came two weeks later by Kaufman himself, entitled “Baal Bhaagna.” It was a Bollywood-inspired take on the source used. The 26th of the month brought the start of competition for the Grand Maverick Remix Battle, hosted by Ansari just like the GRMRB was at the start of the year. And much like that, this one lasted until the end of the year. On Halloween came the final track to be posted from Morse’s album Castlevania: Sonata of the Damned, Demonic Conception. The album was released on Halloween 2009, and with the post came the first OCR album to be released in its entirety through individual mixes. Christopher Getman, better known as Mazedude, also had his 50th mixpost on the same day, joining the ranks of Ari Asulin, alias Protricity, and djpretzel himself.

In came November, and with it came yet another remix of Wily Stage 1 from Mega Man 2. This one was by AkumajoBelmont, real name Robbie Sabo, and was unlike any other remix of the source before. It was a huge success. JH’s first album release with fellow remixer B-Type’s record company Giggling Robot Records happened on the 11th. It was entitled Genuine EP, and contained four tracks. The long-awaited Teen Agent album release occurred on the 22nd. Directed by the infamous Brandon Strader, the album was based on a semi-obscure PC game from a composer who also was semi-obscure. However, he gave it the old thumbs-up, and so did fans. Lastly, on the 28th long-time remixer chthonic decided to use his real name, Benjamin Briggs, for all his remixes. No longer would he have people either confusing him with some metal band or stumbling over how to pronounce his name.

December came, and with it a promise of the best the year had to offer. Although it was the last month of the year, the 13th showed it could contain many firsts with the release of Threshold of a Dream. The Link’s Awakening remix album was the site’s first Zelda album, and 20 album overall. It also was the site’s longest running album, having started originally way back in 2002, and featured many first-time remixers. The requisite flood from the album also brought about the site’s 2,000th hosted track. At the time of this writing, there are currently 2011 tracks hosted on the site, even though the most recent track is OCR02153. Oddly fitting, in my personal opinion. The 23rd also saw the release of Return All Robots! and its soundtrack, OCRO-0003. This was a new type of original soundtrack for the site, as the first disc was the actual soundtrack and the second was all remixes.

And now the end of the year is here. OCR posted 186 tracks so far, and RTS posted 58. Not records by far, but still a respectable amount. The birthday party for OCR went resoundingly well, and wasn’t forgotten once. ThaSauce got a new format so it would be easier to write and post articles on the site. Many stellar albums, an astounding amount of tracks, and a promise of more to come is what 2010 leaves us with. Let’s hope 2011 delivers on the hopes its predecessor has planted! Until next time, and next year, game on!!

Adventure Game Remix Contest!

Artropos posted on OverClocked ReMix:

Welcome to the first ever* Adventure Game Remix Contest

Do you know what King’s Quest is? How about Monkey Island? Whether you know of them or not, you could win stuff by making a remix for the competition.

This contest is open to everyone. Our goal is to give something back to the remix artists who help make this site what it is, and hopefully expose you to some adventure games in the process. Some of the classic adventure games helped shape what the gaming experience is like today, so it’s a good time to give them a little recognition. 🙂

 

This contest is organized by a group of us over on the Global Gamers network, because we have enjoyed this website so much over the years. In addition to prizes for artists, for every entry we receive, we’ll donate $5 toward OCRemix.org up to a maximum of $300.

* At least, I think it’s the first.
AT A GLANCE

Theme: Pick music from an adventure game* and create a remix!
Submissions Accepted: January 23 through February 20 (e-mail to [email protected] – see the How To Submit section)
Votes Accepted: February 21 through February 27 (PM to Atropos – see the Voting section in the next post)
Winners Announced: February 28
Prizes:

1st: 320 GB external hard drive
2nd: Metal remote control helicopter
3rd: LucasArts adventure game pack or OCRemix T-shirt

* Make sure the game you choose is approved, though!

RULES

Submissions will be accepted for four weeks, starting Saturday, January 23 at 12:00 midnight EST and ending Saturday, February 20 at 11:59 PM EST.

Entries must be new remixes created for this competition, and they must fit the adventure game theme.

Entries should be in MP3, OGG, or MIDI format, and they should not be larger than 8 MB. 

Entries must be at least 1 minute long.

Multiple entries from the same artist ARE allowed, but each entry from a single artist must be based on different music. Each artist can only win one prize.

Collaborations are acceptable but the prizes may change accordingly (see the Prizes section in the next post).

THEME

Your source can be from any video game in the adventure genre. Some examples:

Quest for Glory
Police Quest
King’s Quest
Kyrandia
Space Quest
Monkey Island
Grim Fandango
Sam & Max
Syberia
Zork

If you’re not sure if a game you want to use qualifies, make sure you get approval from me (Atropos) before you start!

HOW TO SUBMIT AN ENTRY

E-mail submissions to me at [email protected] before the deadline. In your e-mail, you must include:

1) Your name as you want it posted in the thread
2) The title of your remix
3) The game(s) you used
4) The titles of any songs you used (or if you can’t find the title, some description so we know where it was in the game)
5) Don’t forget your remix! A link to it is fine if you have it hosted somewhere, or just attach it to the e-mail.
6) Any other information you want us to know about your entry.

If you want to modify your entry before the contest deadline, that’s okay, but I have to receive your e-mail or PM with your updated entry before the deadline.

I will post links to the final entries in this thread on Sunday, February 21, for voting.

 

Mega Man X Series Project: Maverick Fight ($$$ prize!)

Bahamut posted on OverClocked ReMix:

So I have a nice little contest here for you guys – the Mega Man X Series project is in need of some boss tracks from various games of the series, and we’re letting you guys take your pick!

The style must be appropriate for the X games (i.e. no slow jazzy boss song). Medleys are allowed.

The deadline for this is March 1, 2010 – decision will be by the MMX project crew in collective voting. Entries are submitted to me via PM, email, etc.

The first place prize is $200 and a guaranteed placement in the project.
The second place prize is $50.
The third place prize is a physical copy of the OCR Final Fantasy 4 album project.

We will welcome all good tracks that comes out of this of course! May the best person win!

The Grand Robot Master Remix Battle – Round One Ends! VOTE!

ROBOT BATTLE

From OverClocked ReMix:

The year is 20XX, and the Robot Masters of the world have come together in order to fight for supremacy, but not with elemental abilities! No! They’ve decided to fight with a more potent weapon: PHAT BEATS, WAILIN’ GUITARS, and OTHER SIMILARLY EPICALLY DESCRIBED MUSICAL ELEMENTS.

So begins OCR’s Grand Robot Master Remix Battle!

Round 1 remixing is done, and all the songs are really great. Check the thread for links to the download and vote by joining the usergroup here.

Freshly Baked ReMixer Challenge Listening Party

FBRC

This year’s Freshly Baked ReMixer challenge, and we’re holding a listening party tomorrow at 6PM PST/ 9PM EST so everyone can have a chance to listen to the songs everyone has been working on over the past 2 months.  The listening party will be held in #thasauce on irc.enterthegame.com.

Way back in 2002 a forum user name “I Like Cookies!” (now just Jeff), ran a 1-shot competition called the Freshly Baked ReMixer challenge. In the thread artists signed up and were assigned challenges posted by other forum users. This is how artists like myself, Suzumebachi, and GLL all got our starts. There were also some other impressive tracks by Disco Dan and a few others.

Some time later the same user did the Second Annual FBRC which, while not as popular as the first one, still saw some solid success.

Since the competition has long been forgotten by most, and seeing all the talent that’s on OCReMix today, I think it’s time we try a revival.

For my info on the FBRC check out the thread on OverClocked ReMix.

PUNCHFEST 3 is scheduled for Saturday June 6th at 2pm EST!

SnappleMan posted on theshizz.org:

n00b – “HEy SnapPleMan, wuts PUCHFEST?”
snappleman – “PUNCHFEST is a
6 hour remix competition which takes place in an IRC chat room. You are
given a theme, and you must complete a song within the 6 hour time
limit. You will be given the theme early in the week, (PUNCHFESTs will
usually take place on a Saturday or Sunday) so that this way you can
pick a song and learn it before the day of the competition. You can’t
work on it before the compo officially starts. We’re using the honor
system here. Read the rules for more details.”

THIS WEEKS THEME IS:KONAMI ARCADE GAMES——————————————————————

I
figured I’d give you guys an extra day with this weeks theme because
you’ll need to listen intently to these songs. There is no method of
seperating the channels for these soundtracks (that I know of at
least).

THEME RESTRICTIONS – You can’t do TMNT, Gradius,
Lifeforce/Salamander games, and you can’t do any game released post
1998. Choose a game that meets these criteria from the list below, and
use BridgeM1 player to listen to the music from the rom.

List: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Konami_games
M1 player: http://www.inverteddungeon.com/triacesuper…an/BridgeM1.rar

This
music is more layered and harder to transcribe than the console stuff,
so you really should take the extra time to learn a song so you can
perform/record it on Saturday.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

To participate, install an IRC client (mIRC works well) and come into #punchfest on irc.esper.net!

IF WE’RE GONNA PLAY THIS GAME, WE NEED SOME
RULES

– Theme will be announced two nights before the contest. This way you can pick your song. DON’T START WORKING ON IT.

You will have 6 hours to complete your song once we start. Do whatever
you want once the thing starts, but when the 6 hour time limit is up
(8pm est) you must have submitted something.
– You can use anything
you want musically. Live instruments, just MIDI, trackers. Just make
sure you submit an MP3 file of whatever it is you did.
– No minimum song length requirement.
– Submission is not anonymous!

VOTING


Voting will take place immediately after the contest. Participants get
3 votes, listeners get 2. Pick your top three songs and to your first
place go 3 points, second place go 2 points, third place goes 1 point.
Listeners get to pick top two songs, with 2 points going to first
place, 1 point going to second.