We are OverClocked ReMix, creating free game remixes since 1999. We just released a 6 hour free album of Final Fantasy VI arrangements after a $150,000 Kickstarter last year. Nobuo Uematsu loved our take on the opera. Ask Us Anything!

I feel like I've asked all the burning questions on the forums and on Facebook over the years, so I'll just say this: thank you so much for everything you have done in the past decade and a half. From the ormgas / rainwave streams to the ReMoved remixes, and even SgtRama's Duck Hunt albums, the music you publish has been the soundtrack to my life since I was a teenager. I still have my original OCR hoodie stashed away in my closet and break it out every winter. My wife had never heard of you before we were married, and now she listens to OC ReMixes just as much as I do. So... thank you :)

Larry: I think we've all bugged our wives and significant others with OC ReMixes too, so thanks for sticking your neck out and being willing to take a hit for your geekyness. :-) There's always something for everyone on the site, even if you have 0 interest or knowledge of video game music.

Funny thing about mentioning Ormgas (which we miss, but are really happy to have Rob & Rainwave take over as our officially unofficial station):

We've never ever done toplists or ratings since they would just skew toward the most popular games. But we finally got smoking gun evidence of that assumption after I saw Ormgas's Top 100 list of OC ReMixes as voted on by the fans. /shakes head - All just Mario/Zelda/FF/Chrono Trigger... you know how it is, the usual suspects. And those are awesome mixes, but yeah, it's just underscores why popular voting will never dictate what gets accepted. Nostalgia bias is a powerful thing. :-)

i dont really have a question either but damn ocremix is truly amazing, keep up the fantastic work!

Thank you!

What was talking with Square-Enix like after they shut down the first kickstarter? I've only really heard bad things about them going after ROM hackers, etc., but they allowed you continue making the album eventually so maybe they're cool dudes after all? Also, where did the entire to hire the Slovak National Symphonic Orchestra come from because that just sounds so very very badass...

Love the music on the site and this album is amazing. Thank you guys SO MUCH for the effort you put into this.

Thanks for the kind words!

We're strictly bound by an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), so we can't talk about the details of our correspondence with Square Enix. What we CAN say is that the arrangement we came up with was fair & reasonable for everyone involved, something we're very very proud of. Large publishers do often get a bad rap for refusing to negotiate or bargain with fan creators, but in this case we actually came up with something that made everyone happy. We hope it will set a new precedent for future interactions with Square Enix and perhaps other big publishers as well.

Regarding the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, Chad Seiter (the arranger of "Terra's Resolve") was just coming off working on a major Star Trek project and figured, "Hey, since we have the orchestra here and set up to record... let's do Terra!" If you're not familiar with Chad, he's worked on some of the very biggest films & TV shows, so the guy is an absolute pro.

Is the album going to end up on music services? Or do I have to download it and then reupload to (e.g.) Google Music?

Most music services like iTunes, Pandora, Spotify (etc) involve revenue generation for the creators, which is not something we want to do and in the case of B&R, is outside of our agreement with S-E. Since we're non-profit & volunteer-run, we try to keep revenue out of things as much as possible :)

So, what new remix albums are there plans for in the future?

Larry: Here's an alpha'ed list of in-progress albums that may or may not get finished.

• Bionic Commando (NES)
• Boss themes (volume 2) - Volume 1 is here: http://badass.ocremix.org
• Dragon Quest/Warrior I-III
• Final Fantasy's 2, 3, 5, 9 (hey, it's popular; we don't dictate what to arrange, and our community's pretty inspired by FF)
• Gunstar Heroes
• Lufia II
• Sega racing games
• Seiken Densetsu 3
• Sonic CD (Japanese & US soundtracks)
• Super Mario 64
• Super Mario RPG
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (SNES) & Hyperstone Heist (Genesis)
• Tim Follin tribute (I have to get it finished in the 21st century)

In the title it says "Nobuo Uematsu loved our take on the Opera". How did you get him a copy? What were his words? It must be truly incredible to come full circle and create something special for someone who created something special for you in the first place.

Larry: Don Kotowski from SEMO, who's awesome, messaged him on Facebook. He's friends with a ton of VGM composers, and great to us as well. He's passed on OC ReMixes to the original composers multiple times. :-)

Regarding Jake Kaufman & Tommy Predrini's "The Impresario", according to Don, Uematsu-san said "I was shocked! I have to buy a glass of beer for this guy!!"

Win.

What's one game that the site doesn't have any remixes of but should?

Edit: Also wanted to just say that I've been following you guys for more than a decade now and don't plan on stopping as long as you keep putting out great music like this. Can't wait for the CDs from the Kickstarter!

Cheers!

• DragonAvenger (judge, ReMixer): Legend of Mana.
• zircon: Disgaea or Ni No Kuni, particularly the latter; absolutely gorgeous soundtracks!
• Larry: Anything by Tim Follin. Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future and Lemmings for PSP were brilliant modern soundtracks of his. Definitely Spider-Man & the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge as well.
• Cain McCormack (Fishy): Space Station Silicon Valley
• OA: I want Ace Combat 5 remixed ;-)

What does the lot of you do for a living?

zircon: Full-time composer and sound designer. Got my start on OCR!

DarkeSword: Professional web and application developer at a university.

Larry: Development/online marketing for The Carter Center. Jimmy Carter is awesome.

Hey - just wanted to say that I've been listening to you guys for YEARS and I love the work you do. Thanks for the great times, and keep up the good work :D

Thanks for listening! Tell your friends! :D

Once again, amazing job with this collection of music.

Has any thought been given to tackling Final Fantasy 8's OST in a project of this magnitude? FF8's music has been a staple of the Distant Worlds concert series and The Black Mages albums (and rightfully so, as I feel the OST holds it's own against every other FF), but I always felt that the music wasn't getting the full attention it deserved on OCRemix.

Just a thought for your next project, as I would definitely make a contribution via Kickstarter to make it happen.

Larry: Definitely no plans as of yet. All projects need a director who's passionate about the game and willing to reach out to tons of artists to make something happen. Can't imagine FF8 any time soon given the number of other in-progress projects, but maybe one day. :-)

Noticed a number of songs that were a collaboration of 4-5 people, what's that process like? Is there one person that "owns" the song? Do people take turns arranging it? Is there a musical version of source control?

Fucking awesome album by the way. Making my way through it slowly, but every time I get to "Fistful of Nickels" I end up putting it on repeat forever.

zircon: Really glad you enjoyed "Fistful of Nickels"; I put a lot of time into that! Big collaborations are always fun. Typically there is one person who is sort of the main arranger or coordinator. They set up temporary parts (mockups / placeholders) for various live instruments and then send these along with sheet music and/or MIDI data to the other people involved, who then record their parts and sent it back to the arranger. This way, there's ONE point person who is making sure all the different components get implemented.

A slightly less common approach is to send an entire MIDI file or project file back in forth. I did that on "Demon, Fiend & Goddess" with Sixto Sounds. The whole track was a MIDI file and we recorded or synthesized everything all at once at the end.

Cain McCormack (Fishy): For 'Bad Octopus', I had actually completely finished the song and submitted it to Andy, and then showed it to XPRTNovice just because I thought he would find it funny. He ended up sending me back a clip of him playing clarinet over the track and I thought it was brilliant, so I gave him a basic list where and what to play and he went to town with it. Collaborations happen in unusual ways!

You guys are a staple of my life, I don't really have any questions, I just wanted to say thank you. =)

Thank you for listening all these years. :)

I have been listening to OC Remix for a very long time. More than 10 years, I guess. Wow.

I admit, I listen to it less today than I did then. If I had to put a finger on what prompted the decline, I guess I felt that the selections being remixed were either 1) from new games I hadn't played and which I wasn't particularly curious to hear revisited or 2) from the same group of 10 or 15 highly-popular games from the NES and SNES era.

So my question is: Do you think there's an issue with game repetition on the site? Do you think it's a problem? Are there great or at least memorable game tunes from the 80s and 90s that are getting too little attention? And what can the community do about this?

Again, I really do love the site and please keep up your important creative work.

And bring back AmIEvil.

zircon A couple thoughts: we only post remixes that people submit to us. We don't scrape content from other sites or anything like that. So, if people are mostly submitting from the NES/SNES era (which is most familiar & nostalgic to a large number of gamers & musicians, and also very memorable in terms of melodic content), we'll end up with lots of mixes from that era. But I think you may be overlooking a lot of the gems on the site from a huge range of games on other platforms; why not grab our latest torrent and check it out?

As for whether we think there's an issue with repetition, I can't speak for literally every staff member's personal opinions, but our policy is not to discriminate against any submission based on game or platform (with the exception of things that fall outside our submission standards, like games with licensed music). That does mean if people love Mega Man 2, Chrono Trigger, and Sonic 3, we'll evaluate their remixes fairly as with anything else.

On the other hand, we DEFINITELY don't want to only promote the popular titles. That's why we've repeatedly rejected the idea of a rating system or anything involving mix popularity. The results would immediately skew toward those really popular games. Instead, we're exploring ideas like a tagging system (which is already partially implemented) which would let people browse and discover new mixes in a different way besides sifting through the torrent or using the front page ReMix Roulette.

Are there tunes from the C64/NES/SNES era not getting enough attention? Absolutely! We've had projects in the past focusing on fairly obscure games like Teen Agent for example, or underappreciated games in general ("Unsung Heroes"). There is certainly interest in that stuff. I think the best thing the community can do is just download, promote, and share these mixes + projects, post reviews, and encourage musicians/remixers you know to take a crack at the under-arranged material :)

As for AmIEvil, dude dropped off the face of the map as far as I know... I did invite him to Balance & Ruin, too!

I've noticed going through a lot of your remixes that the genre is always up to question, and especially more so when you have a large collaboration. That said, what are some of the more bizarre or intriguing remixes that you could recommend? Any particular artists that always wow you with a remix?

Cain McCormack (Fishy): For most bizarre remix, it's got to be 'Zelda Heineken' by Mattias Holmgren (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01845/), composed for beer bottle.

For constantly wow'ing me, XPRTNovice. Seriously. He's just infuriatingly multi-talented.

Can the judges still djp?

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8742/dothedjp3nnsh8.gif

Where do you see OCRemix going in the future? What projects would you like to do given total freedom and infinite resources? Also any plans to do a bastion album remix?

Also you guys are amazing

We plan to keep on releasing amazing mixes & albums, but will also branch out & experiment with different release avenues and different concepts for albums, not restricting things to individual games or series necessarily. As for the website, we plan to make it more interactive and to allow for playlists/jukebox style functionality too! No plans for a Bastion album, but we DID just post this mix:

http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02673/ - Darren Korb enjoyed it!

Oh I know about that track, it's why I asked :p I'd love to see what you guys could do with the rest of it haha. On a personal sidenote you guys have been the perfect soundtrack to every piece of work I've had over the past few years, hopefully one day I'll be able to produce good enough work to join you

Larry: That said, Greg Kasavin and Jen Zee follow us on the Tweeter and are super cool. If there was interest, I'd love for OCR to do a Supergiant Games tribute for both Bastion and Transistor, or at least a few more ReMixes.

As far as getting a mix on OCR, the bar's pretty high nowadays, but we've got an overall great community of people on the forums who want to help you get better. If you don't stop learning, you can't be stopped. :-)

I'm in for a Supergiant Games album. Let's do this.

Larry: Oh snap! Dustin, let's talk. :-)

Will Larry ever love anything more than the McRib?

No

Loved your SSF2 HD Remix tracks for the game. Please keep up the good work, those tracks alone for the game really shows your strengths!

Thank you! We're proud that only one game journo wanted to kill it with fire. Everyone else that reviewed it praised it. 30-to-1 thumbs up ratio? We'll take it!

I've been an OCR listener since something like the 100th remix and I can say that you guys have provided the soundtrack to a significant portion of my life. Thanks for everything you've made and the community of music you have fostered.

That said, the short list of Hitoshi Sakimoto remixes makes me sad. Do you think there is a reason people don't often remix his work?

zircon Thanks for the kind words! Sakimoto is an absolutely brilliant composer. My reasoning for why he doesn't frequently get arranged is because his stuff is so good to begin with. It also tends to be more harmonically complex which is harder for most people to arrange than more simple and pared down source tunes (NES/SNES era.)

Is there any chance of a full remix album for "Terranigma"? This game has one of the most impressive music in snes history in my opinion. I'm listening to your remixalbums almost every day and I'm always hyped when you release a new one. The Megaman remix and your donkey kong country series are my absolute highlights so far, keep on your awesome work guys!

DarkeSword: I'm a big fan of Terranigma, as are a number of OC ReMixers (Jimmy "bgc" Hinson among them). I think it's a wonderful soundtrack with some really beautiful melodies. I'd love to see someone organize an album for that game one day.

In a more general sense, I'm seeing a lot of folks asking about whether or not we'd ever do an album for such-and-such game. For something like FF6, it was such a high profile and much beloved soundtrack that we wanted to take a little bit more ownership of it from the very start, but generally speaking, most of the albums that we release form organically within the community. Someone will have an idea and start gathering artists to make it a reality, and we get involved in the later stages to handle quality control and logistics.

So the answer to those questions is always "sure, it's definitely possible." It just takes a couple of dedicated people at the start to get the ball rolling. :)

Love the new album! The amount of polish and production value is just wonderful.

Do you think the Kickstarter approach be used for future projects?

zircon: Thank you! Our experience with Kickstarter was a net positive, overall. Those following it closely will remember our original Kickstarter was pulled and relaunched over a month later, which was the main 'hiccup' in getting the project funded. Plus, since we're a totally non-profit, volunteer site, we have to be careful about how we raise money. It's also not the kind of thing we would do on a regular basis.

That being said, the overwhelming support from fans showed us that it's a very effective way of realizing really big, important projects and we'll definitely consider it again sometime in the future.

I've loved that site for such a long time. I have a special place in my heart for everything that Zircon puts out. Please, please do more work with your wife, who has a wonderful voice.

zircon: Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words! Jill and I are working together on her upcoming album, "Atlantis Awakening", which also features Laura Intravia, Malukah, and Tina Guo. It should be pretty cool, so I hope you'll check that out later this year. :)

Plan on doing more work with Big Giant Circles?

Larry: Of course! Jimmy's awesome; it's inevitable.

I love the album but my personal preference has always been for separation between orchestrated pieces and other "natural instruments" and those that use synthetic and "chip tunes" style sounds, simply because I haven't found many songs that combine them well.

When listening to the album I'd occasionally run across a song with a thudding techno-bass or a mixture of instruments I didn't find appealing solely on my personal tastes. Do you have similar problems when overseeing an album of this magnitude?

I can't imagine putting all this together and then someone comes in with a rearrangement of one of your favorite, most emotional themes of all times except now it's an electronic polka/ragtime piano mix (or some other hypothetical you'd find unsettling for the theme).

zircon I'm glad you enjoyed the album. As directors, McVaffe and I sought to make sure each remix stayed true to the mood and feel of the game. We definitely wanted to avoid the situation you described, where the interpretation strays too far from the source in such a way that it becomes unsettling or disconnected from the context of the game. Each track was evaluated and approved, often with some back-and-forth and revisions, so there isn't anything I would change. I like the whole track list!

So, I stop paying attention for awhile and you do this?!

Congrats on the super-awesome new release!

Thank you! The good thing about the site is that if you choose to just lurk every once in a while, the torrents make it pretty easy to catch up on everything you might have missed.

I'm a kickstarter backer, and I'm loving some of the music on Balance and Ruin, especially the three opera songs so I'm pleased to have backed such an excellent project. How did you decide what makes the cut for inclusion on the album?

Also, given the kickstarter funding and how big a project this was, what would you do differently if you had to do it over again? And what do you think has been learned from this project that could be applied to future OC remix albums? Can there be a bigger project than Balance & Ruin?

zircon: McVaffe and I carefully evaluated everything for the project. Our main criteria, besides polished production and creative arrangements, was the *mood of each ReMix. We didn't want anything to stray far from the mood and feel of the original source tune. For example, we evaluated several different takes on Locke's theme, and ultimately felt "Smoke and Clouds" fit the character's adventurous lifestyle and melancholic past the best. There was a lot of back-and-forth with the musicians and I personally mixed/mastered dozens of tracks myself. In short, the level of musical direction for B&R was quite involved.

As for the Kickstarter, I think everything ultimately turned out well once we had our discussion with Square-Enix and came to an agreement with them. Since we haven't ultimately done the fulfillment yet (we're about to print the B&R physicals) it may be too early to say whether we would do anything differently. I'm sure we'll hit some challenges that make us regret one decision or another!

But to answer your second question, yes, doing a project of this magnitude has absolutely taught us quite a bit that can be applied to future albums (namely interactions with professional studio musicians, backend project organization, running a Kickstarter, etc.) I'm sure there will be some project someday bigger than this in terms of # of tracks or hours of music, but when you factor in all of the live musicians involved and the KS itself, B&R is going to be hard to top.

Larry: I'll just add in that I wish we hadn't sent the backer surveys until we were ready to ship the physical albums out, since Kickstarter only allows you to send 1 survey per backer group (which we didn't realize until later). So we do have to keep track of people contacting us about physical address changes, and don't want to drop the ball on that. :-)

Brilliant album guys (I've also been watching the FFIX album for a while now; hope that one comes out within the year, fingers crossed). You might have mentioned in one of the backer emails (if you did I missed it), but is there any timeframe on the physical CDs?

Again, excellent job all round, have an internet-pat-on-the-back from me.

Cain McCormack (Fishy): Hi Kal, I'm actually directing the FFIX project. It's definitely on the way and I've got over 40 finished tracks for it. Listening to this FFVI project has got me really excited to get it over the line so I'm gonna get things moving!

Larry: We're hoping to finalize the FF6 CD/DVD printing in the next week or two. As you've seen, the other past albums have already been made. We're really hoping that everyone gets their rewards before the end of August (at the latest). Sorry in advance if that timing doesn't quite work out, but believe us when we say we're working on it and making sure it's done right.

zircon -- Is that your sister/wife/relative doing vocals in some of your songs? Did she influence you to get into music production? She has a great voice and really adds to many of the songs I've heard.

djpretzel -- Any information you can give us on your inspiration in choosing to cover Devil's Lab on FFVI B&R? What did you want to get across in your remix?

zircon: Haha, as belthesar noted, that is actually my wife :-) She's going to be performing and touring with Video Games Live in just a couple weeks. We met on OCR in 2005 and started dating in 2006; we've been collaborating every since. But it's funny that you mention my sister; I do have two older sisters, one of whom is also a composer, albeit not interested in video games at all. Growing up in a very music-friendly household definitely influenced me.

What West Coast events do you attend, if any?

We try to go to PAX when we can; we also had some staff at the Reno Game Expo last month. Other than that, most of what we do is on the East coast, since that's where a big chunk of the site staff live. Though it's not an official event for us, various folks in the community do attend the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco: zircon, Jillian Aversa, Danny Baranowsky, A_Rival, bustatunez, etc.

Not including your own works, what are the last 3 songs/pieces you have listened to? IPod/spotify/Pandora/etc

zircon: Blueshift by Protodome and a whole bunch of stuff on Pandora's "Brazilian" station.

Larry: I've been immersed in OCR material, so I'll just plug 3 Tim Follin tracks. :-)

• Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future: "Aquamarine Bay"

• Lemmings (PSP) - "Earth 1"

• Future Tactics: The Uprising - "Main Menu/Common Battle II"

Now that I'm thinking, the real answer is Meine Meinung's arrangement of Chrono Trigger's "Corridors of Time", Austin Wintory and Lisbeth Scott's "I Was Born for This" from Journey, and Smooth McGroove's take on FF6's Decisive Battle. Lots of win.

YEAAAAAHH blueshift!

<3 New York Cheesecake

zircon: Great League of Legends music :-P

What happens with all the submissions that didn't make the cut for the FFVI B&R album? I love how the 5th track gave a few secondary glimpses at songs that were covered on the first 4 discs.

Is there a place I can go to hear the other submissions that didn't make the cut?

zircon: To be clear, the tracks on disc 5 definitely made our cut. We had multiple takes for a variety of reasons. In some cases, someone started a remix and said they couldn't finish, so we found another musician to fill their spot. Then, the original arranger finished their track after all. We also ran two contests which produced tons of great material, in some cases multiple takes on the same tune. In any case, anything on ANY disc of the album is absolutely stamped with our seal of quality. Deciding which take to put on which disc was just a matter of subjective preference for which version fit the main track flow the best.

literally just found out about you guys about a week ago. that dk2 album is glorious. just came to say yall are doing a great job.

Thanks! Make sure you dig in deep. Our catalog is music is HUGE!

Hey guys. I've loved OC Remix for ages! Thanks for all the great work.

My question, TotalBiscuit has started featuring tracks on his "Content Patch" series. Has this boosted site traffic to a decent degree? I ask as I love the site and really want it to be super active. Once again, thanks for all you do guys!

We love TotalBiscuit; he's definitely a hardcore fan and we really appreciate when he features our stuff!

We actually don't watch our traffic closely. Part of that mentality has been because we don't want to field questions on "what's the most popular ReMix?/who's the most popular ReMixer", since we don't allow ratings. But we definitely get a solid bump on our YouTube channel and on ocremix.org whenever we're featured on Content Patch and on Penny Arcade's Extra Credits. FUN FACT: Extra Credits' chipmunk-voiced narrator Daniel Floyd has been an OC ReMixer for years as sephfire.

What are your guy's opinions on the man, the legend, the force of nature that is Cyril the Wolf?

"Never gonna stoppppppppppppppppppppppp!" :-)

He's awesome.

Long time lurker here (been around since 2000 or so). I have noticed a shift towards album projects as the main source of site content in the last few years. My biggest criticism with this is that generally, album projects tend to encompass far too much musical territory for me to fully enjoy in one listening session. Has there ever been any thought or discussion towards focusing on a specific genre of music for a project rather than a game or theme? Such a project might flow a lot better.

zircon Project directors have done that for projects like Chrono Symphonic and Random Encounter, to name a couple. In the case of Final Fantasy VI, the original soundtrack is incredibly diverse to begin with with a ton of different musical styles. We talked about it and we felt the best way to represent it was by sticking to the original mood & feel of each piece but treating them with the same diversity and breadth of instrumentation as Uematsu did. Plus, had we chosen to stick to just one style, I think it would have been very very tiring over the course of 70+ tracks.

That being said I'm all for doing smaller, more focused projects in a given style, I just felt it wasn't appropriate for FF6.

I regret not funding for a CD when the Kickstarter was up, is there a chance of getting an official copy after the fact?

We did print more albums than were necessary for backer rewards, but we won't be selling them. We'll be giving them away or using them as contest prizes during convention events like MAGfest, Otakon, PAX / PAX East or even smaller cons like Connecticon; check our Announcements forum from time to time and see where we're going to be next. We'll also be providing copies to Video Games Live for them to give away, and anytime we run our own contests/raffles (etc) on OCReMix.org, we'll try to get 'em out to people like you.

Which songs were you most excited to remix from the soundtrack?

zircon: I think everyone on the project would have their own answer for this - part of the bonus materials for the DVD is a series of interviews with various ReMixers discussing their involvement with the project, their memories of FF6, etc. Personally, I was really excited to realize my vision of an Ennio Morricone-inspired take of Shadow's Theme for "A Fistful of Nickels"!

Have you guys ever thought of teaming up with game companies such as Nintendo or Capcom? Those are just examples, but often time, you guys blow everything out of the water, and I would love to hear you in a game, most of the time, I think you guys are better than the original

We've already done that! We provided the remixed soundtrack to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix back in 2008, as an official collaboration with Capcom. As with our other projects, you can download it here:

http://ocremix.org/info/OC_ReMix:_Super_Street_Fighter_II_Turbo_HD_Remix_Official_Soundtrack

Of course, we would absolutely love to do more projects like that. Anyone reading, if you're a pro game designer, producer, audio director or know any who call the shots on music, recommend us. We're around. :)

What's the likelihood of seeing anything remixed from Gitaroo Man? The game has a special place in my heart and I just feel like no one knows about it <_<

The magic 8-ball says:

● You may rely on it

Sir Jordanius did an AWESOME job with the sole Gitaroo Man mix we have right now. http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02317/

It's a great soundtrack, as we'd love to see more ReMixes from it. :-) - Larry

Asked on Kickstarter but can't hurt to ask here as well -- Will the physical CDs for FFVI Balance & Ruin be the same quality as the FLAC files from the torrent download?

Thanks!

Yes, the physical CDs will have all lossless audio just like the FLACs from the torrent.

What do you think is the key to making a successful music arrangement?

zircon: When it comes to video game music, I always try to stick to the elements of the original tune that make it unique and memorable. I can respect different approaches, but personally, I work hard to make sure the feel and mood of the source material is preserved. Beyond that, I think creativity in the arrangement is really important as well; not just using the original notes + chords but building around it with new material, new harmonies, counterpoint, solo sections, etc. I enjoy listening to straightforward covers as well, but personally I much prefer to kick things up a notch and actually expand on the material.

Really polished production helps too!

First off, you guys all squarely hit this album into orbit. It's just heads and feet above anything I've seen come off ocremix before.

Relating to the album: how long did it take to pick your jaws off the floor after hearing The Impresario for the first time?

Pretzel: How do you feel your Devils Lab remix stacks up against (my personal favorite of yours) Strum und Kong?

Fishy: What would it take to convince you to do a remix of Gravity Beetle from mmx3?

zircon: My response to virt's email with the final song in it was simply, "OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD". So... quite awhile :-) Truly one of the greatest remixes of all time.

Larry re: hearing "The Impresario" the first time: Just a huge smile, and needing to show off the song to my wife.

What skills do you think are required to compose/remix videogame music?

Also, is there any VGM you guys really want to remix but you haven't for any reason?

Keep up with the great work guys. I first heard about you thanks to project chaos and everything I've heard from you since then has been amazing.

zircon: The diversity among ReMixers and composers in terms of their musical background is pretty incredible. Some folks have advanced degrees in composition and theory, others are totally self-taught, and there's everybody in between. I'd say that generally speaking, it helps to have a bit of musical experience - playing the piano, a theory course or two, even a couple years of guitar. Then, a DAW (digital audio workstation) like FL Studio, Reason, REAPER, etc. is generally a must-have so you can create an edit MIDI & audio. Some DAWs come with a variety of sounds and tools built in, particularly Reason, while others are meant to be expanded with external tools like VST plugins and sample libraries.

IMO, if you're interested in remixing game music, it's best to just try a few different programs and dive right in using whatever tools you can get your hands on. Don't worry about doing things the 'right' way at first, but just try to have fun with it. YouTube is a great resource for basic tutorials, and there are plenty of free programs & unlimited demos out there to get started with. Trying to learn too much about music theory, production, composition and technology will likely burn you out, whereas if you simply jump right in and make something (even if it's not, strictly-speaking, 'good') you'll at least be getting your feet wet!

Will you be at the upcoming Magfest in January?

Larry: We've been at MAGFest every year since MAGFest 5, including a panel presentation. Our house band, OverClocked University, performed there this year. :-)

Are YOU gonna be at MAGFest? Anyone reading this, GO TO MAGFEST! You won't regret it.

It's 4 days, 3 nights of video games and video game music, taking over a HUGE, top-notch hotel just outside Washington, DC and running it 24 hours a day. Celebs, panels, tabletop room, LAN room, video room, 24 hour arcade room full of cabinets AND consoles. Tons of VGM bands in concert. No shameless advertising plastered everywhere, not corporate in any way.

It's always amazing and always worth it. They don't pay us to pimp it this hard. If you have friends, share a car and/or room to cut down on the costs and have an awesome time. GOGOGO

What is the screening process like on the site for remixes, how many remixes get rejected and for what reasons?

Also Final Fantasy VII - Voices of the Lifestream since its release is my favorite remix album of all time thanks so much djpretzel, zircon and the rest.

zircon: You can check out our submission standards here:

http://ocremix.org/info/Submission_Standards_and_Instructions

Each mix first gets a preliminary evaluation by one of our panel of handpicked judges (basically, content curators). If it is clearly below our bar of quality, OR if it does not meet our standards in some other way (i.e. remix from a non-eligible game or source), it will receive a form rejection letter on the spot. The opposite can happen as well; if a remix is absolutely amazing, it will be sent to a direct posting queue. Everything else is sent to the judges panel, where each judge gives a YES or NO vote, along with an explanation of their decision.

Many submissions are rejected because of production issues. For example, an orchestral arrangement with very fake-sounding MIDI instruments, an electronic piece with cheesy / dated sounds, songs that are too loud, too quiet, distorted, and everything in between. Arrangement issues can include staying too close to the source (not adding any original interpretation and basically just covering it note-for-note), straying too FAR from the source (unrecognizable / not enough connections), 'medleyitis' where the remix uses tons of source tunes in an incoherent way, an arrangement that is too long/short or lacks cohesiveness (sudden changes in tempo or style, no transitions)... the list goes on.

I think this process is very unique and really ensures a high standard of quality in every piece that gets posted. Whereas anyone can post a song to Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or YouTube, we take the time to listen to every single submission... and believe me, there are a lot of them. I'm not sure what the current rate is but it is definitely on the order of 600-700+ a year at a minimum. (EDIT: Larry: It's about 900 a year at this point. It's grown.) The MAJORITY of these are NOT accepted to the site. Again not sure what the current figure is - someone else can weigh in tomorrow - but probably 70-90% are rejected.

No questions. Just wanted to say you guys are AWESOME! Love the Chrono remixes.

Larry: Thank you! We hope you're enjoying the non-Chrono ReMixes too; you know, anything comparatively more obscure, since there are tons of ReMix gems among games that aren't AS popular as Chrono Trigger. :-)

First I need to say THANK YOU for Threshold of a Dream. Link's Awakening is probably my favorite game of all-time and you guys brought it to life in such a fantastic way. I can't express how much I loved that collection of music.

Second, what is the project you have enjoyed working on most? Do you have any regrets, like something you wish you did more of on said project?

Lastly, I contribute to a website where my articles revolve around video game music. I would love to do an article on you guys in the future. What would be the best way to get a hold of someone for some Q&A?

Thanks again, all of you! Keep doing what you're doing!

Larry: Someone else on staff can answer for themselves if they'd like to. :-)

1. Credit for organizing and directing Threshold of a Dream goes to Brad "prophetik" Burr, who did a wonderful job, especially since the project had been stalled for a long while and he came in to pick it up! He went for a darker overall tone than most of our albums and that tone honored the premise of Link's Awakening well, i.e. being thrown into an unknown world, and really captured that feel with the talented contributors brought on board.

2. I've only directed one project, Deus Ex: Sonic Augmentation, which wasn't a traditional one since it was commissioned by Eidos Montreal. My one regret there is that we had talked about distributing it as free DLC on Steam, and it seemed like it was a go to move forward, but that never happened despite the initial interest. I'm looking forward to the day when we partner with a company for an album and they're willing to publish it on Steam, since there's a huge audience of gamers that just don't know OC ReMix or that there's this kind of appreciation for game music out there.

3. For you or for ANYONE from a blog or outlet, big or small, we always love taking questions about the site in general or about album projects. Hit us up at [email protected] any time to reach out for an interview. Sending us questions preemptively is always the best bet, rather than playing tag like "Hey, would you be willing to answer some questions?" We totally would, VGM is wonderful to talk about. :-) If someone on our staff wouldn't be the one to answer the Qs, I'm the one that will work to get you in touch with the specific people you need. Fire away!

Why isn't there a Zozo track on the album?

Larry: I was about to say "there is," but that would be incorrect.

There are. :-) The Zozo town theme's officially known as "Slam Shuffle." Mazedude arranged it for track 2-12 ("Slam Davis") and bLiNd tackled it for track 5-11 ("Slam Shufflin'").

On a tangent, this is a different thing entirely, but the situation sort of reminds me of when people claim on our YouTube channel that a ReMix has almost or literally nothing to do with its source tune, when really it's just an extended intro that moves onto a pretty overt rendition of the original song. In other words, "wait for it... wait for it... ah, there it is!"

No worries, it's there, we promise!

Hey guys. I am working on becoming a full timing video game composer currently. I am doing a degree in composition and OCR has been a massive influence in my musical decisions in life. So Thank you for that!

I was wondering how important you guys think 'Remixing' is, in terms of musical development. I write my own originals as well as remixes but I find remixes take a lot longer to make for me. Should I stick to originals or have a healthy balance of both.

Also, I have trouble making my own synths that sounds nice and fit in well with certain mixes. Which is a good way I can improve my skills in synthesizing, rather than just picking presets?

Thanks for doing this AMA :)

zircon: Thanks for listening to our mixes! I'm responding to this because your background seems similar to my own. I became interested in music production & composition not from taking years of piano lessons (which I did), but by discovering OC ReMix and participating in the community. That led to me applying to Drexel University's Music Industry program to learn more about composition, music business, and technology, and I ultimately got a full scholarship. I now do music & sound design full time so it would not be a stretch to say OCR changed my life.

In my opinion, remixing and arranging music is a great way to practice and hone your skills. It helps train your ear, and it will give you a better understanding of what goes into a great piece of music, as you'll be transcribing various elements from it. More importantly, it's FUN, and if you're just starting out can be more satisfying than solely writing original music (which can be difficult if you have minimal experience). Of course if you want to be a professional composer, you'll want to get involved with some indie game projects as soon as possible, but remixing is absolutely a great use of your time.

Regarding presets vs. custom sounds: I wouldn't stress over this too much at your stage. You might search for tutorials on "subtractive synthesis" and learn about some of the principals involved, and/or try to analyze presets for a basic synthesizer such as the free "Synth1" VST or something like ES-1 in Logic. The more important thing is to develop an ear for selecting sounds that fit together, and writing notes appropriate for different instruments. There's isn't anything inherently wrong with presets; the issue is more that some people use them in a sloppy or generic way that doesn't fit their music. It can be helpful to compare your music to songs or arrangements you really like and listen carefully to the sounds being used.

More geared towards the album in general. The Kickstarter promised "Supporter" credits for the $25 (and $50, and $100) to be on the website, and yet the only names on the site itself are those from the $250 and up tiers. I know I answered the question of what my name would be FOR the Supporter credit, so are those being added to the site soon as promised orrr?

We'll fix'er up this week. Blame Larry! (It's not actually his fault, but it's easier this way!)

Will there ever be another chance to grab a physical copy of the remix?

I missed my chance when the Kickstarter was happening, and since downloading the remix and listening to every CD three times since yesterday, I've been kicking myself for not donating when I should have.

That's my only question. I want to thank you guys for hosting this wonderful piece of gaming music history. The soundtrack to Final Fantasy VI has been my favorite, and this remix makes me tear up a bit. So damn good.

Thanks for the kind words! We're glad you enjoyed the album. We did print more albums than were necessary for backer rewards, but we won't be selling them. We'll be giving them away or using them as contest prizes during convention events like MAGFest, Otakon, PAX Prime / PAX East or even smaller cons like ConnectiCon; check our Announcements forum from time to time and see where we're going to be next. We'll also be providing copies to Video Games Live for them to give away, and anytime we run our own contests/raffles (etc) on ocremix.org, we'll try to get them out to people like you.

Thanks for all the years of great music. Thoughts on some new Suikoden and Xenogears music? Two of my favorite game soundtracks ever.

zircon I love the soundtrack for Suikoden II, definitely agree that it needs some serious attention :)

Just wanna say your sonic 2 remixes are awesome.... Hidden palace future is my jam

Thank you kindly! And since you like that track, we highly recommend you check out FFmusic Dj's latest OC ReMix, Shadowrun 'Running the Cyberpunks'. It's awesome just like "Hidden Palace Future" only a much more extended kind of club mix.

WHY, are you guys SO DAMN AWESOME, besides the fact that the site is teeming with talented passionate fans who remix shit. i seriously don't think there's one remix on your site that i dislike.

on to the real question, what's your next project going to be?

Larry: It could be either BadAss volume 2 (boss themes) or Gunstar Heroes, but we're not 100% sure yet.

Huge fan since I was in middleschool 10 years ago. When I met the team at a con for the first time, I totally lost it.

I have a question though. Why are game compilation albums so dang huge now? I seem to remember them being a bit less heavy in the Gigs back in the day. I know more = better in a lot of cases, but Its kinda exhausting to download all them tracks and sort through 'em!

Also, what are you thoughts on the chiptune scene?

zircon: If by compilations you mean really large projects, we've been doing those since Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream (which came out in 2007). I think there is more talent in the community than ever and people just want to cover their favorite games in lots of depth. However I agree that not every game or series merits this approach. For example, djpretzel and I would love to do a Phantasy Star project for the original series (1-4), but rather than mixing every track we would just do the strongest and most memorable tunes.

As for the chiptune scene, I'd say we love 'em. Lots of crossover to and from our community. People also have a perception that OCR doesn't accept chiptunes, which is based on a single judge decision we made over 5 years ago. Basically, the consensus is that doing a chiptune arrangement is fine as long as the arrangement is strong, interpretive, and makes good use of the chiptune sound, if you will. There are very lazy 'demakes' or 'de-mixes' out there that just take a MIDI of the original source and run it through some lo-fi samples/synth waveforms; we want to see more effort than that!