{{Infobox Website | name = OverClocked ReMix | logo = | screenshot = | caption = The OverClocked ReMix homepage in early 2010, showing the latest ReMixes arranged David Wise's soundtrack | url = http://ocremix.org (RSS) | commercial = No | type = Video game music tribute site | registration = Optional (required for posting on the forums) | owner = OverClocked ReMix, LLC | author = David W. Lloyd (djpretzel) | launch date = December 11, 1999

The webmaster of OverClocked ReMix is David W. Lloyd (a.k.a. djpretzel), Ambiguity regarding the term ReMix is unintentional, since the organization is dedicated to creative rearrangements of classic themes only, not to rearrangements involving changing minor details or plagiarizing the work of others.

History

Lloyd began the organization under the name of DJ Pretzel's OverClocked ReMix in December 1999 as a spin-off of OverClocked, his 3D webcomic about playing and emulating video games. The format was derived from Commodore 64 arrangement website C64Audio.com (then a host for many fan arrangements); Lloyd chose to expand the focus to all games regardless of game system. Originally coded in basic HTML and sporting an orange color scheme, the site underwent a conversion to a database-driven system in 2001, as well as visual redesigns in 2001 (blue), 2002 (purple) and its current design in 2004 (silver & orange). To better accommodate the volume of music submissions and improve selection consistency, a panel of judges, composed of accomplished artists and contributors to the community, was instituted in early 2002 In April 2008, Lloyd and Oji joined Six Apart's Anil Dash, MetaFilter's Matt Haughey, Reddit's Alexis Ohanian and FARK.com's Drew Curtis for a panel discussion on virtual communities at Internet meme convention, ROFLCon, co-sponsored by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In late 2007, Capcom U.S.A.'s Rey Jimenez enlisted the organization to provide the soundtrack for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, a high definition remake of 1994's Super Street Fighter II Turbo, its first professional game soundtrack.

Main features

There have been more than 2,000 "ReMixes" hosted on the site submitted by more than 500 "ReMixers" ReMixes are released under a non-commercial, attribution-requiring content policy.

The site approves ReMixes based on standards and guidelines encouraging arrangement creativity and capable production quality. Throughout the years, 165 works have been removed after initially being admitted, generally due to stricter enforcement of the site's standards after the admission of the work. A common violation is a "MIDI rip", which involves obtaining a MIDI transcription of the source material, making minor modifications to it, and passing it off as one's own work. Other violations include stolen or unoriginal recordings, cover versions, arrangements which differ so far from the source material as to be unrecognizable, and obvious sub-par execution. with new albums added periodically. The site also maintains a database of the skills of members of its community to encourage artist collaboration. Lloyd and other staff also conduct interviews with prolific ReMixers, video game music composers and celebrities about video game music creation.

OverClocked ReMix's discussion forums and IRC channel are where the majority of community interaction occurs. Areas of discussion include boards devoted to reviews, works in progress, projects, and competitions, as well as more general boards for discussion of topics less related to remixing.

Albums and other projects

2009]] In addition to hosting individual files, OC ReMix also publishes albums of entire game soundtracks, created as collaboration among groups of remixers. It has currently produced 21 albums, as well as two "joke" albums for April Fools' Day. The albums range in length from 7 tracks to 66 tracks. All of the albums are hosted on OC ReMix, and are free for download. The first album produced was Relics of the Chozo on September 12, 2003, and the latest is The Answer, released on January 10, 2010.

The musicians of OverClocked ReMix were chosen to handle the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix soundtrack after Capcom U.S.A. associate producer Rey Jimenez heard the organization's 2006 Super Street Fighter II Turbo tribute album Blood on the Asphalt. Entitled OC ReMix: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Official Soundtrack, the complete 66-track album was freely released at OverClocked ReMix. Along with several new arrangements, edited versions of Blood on the Asphalt tracks and prior remixes from the site comprise the soundtrack. The remixers arranged the music based on knowledge of the Street Fighter II series alone, as the music for the game was completed before the visuals and gameplay. OC ReMix founder David "djpretzel" Lloyd directed the soundtrack and served as the organization's contact with Capcom "to ensure that working with a large fan community was as close as possible for Capcom to working with a single composer". Other entities with favorable reviews of the soundtrack included Eurogamer, GameSpot, Official Xbox Magazine, GamesRadar, 1UP.com, as well as long-time game composer "The Fat Man" George Sanger, who referred to the Capcom-OC ReMix collaboration as "Game Audio 2.0".

In addition to the albums and remixes, the OverClocked ReMix community has undertaken other projects in efforts to enhance or promote its main website. Some, such as an official Winamp skin and download manager (called "OverClocked ReCollections"), were abandoned after long periods of inactivity. Among the successful projects are Chipamp, a Winamp plugin bundle to make chiptunes and video game music sound formats more accessible, OCR Radio, an endorsed fanmade internet radio stream of OC ReMixes that is a part of Rainwave, and VG Frequency, a news blog covering the game music arrangement fan community. {| class="collapsible collapsed" border="0" style="width:70%" ! style="width:14em; text-align:left" | Album list ! | |- | colspan="2" | {|class="wikitable" style="width:100%; margin-right:-1em;" |- ! Title || 2005 |- | Rise of the Star || Kirby's Adventure || 2005 |- | The Dark Side of Phobos || Doom || 2005 |- | Chrono Symphonic || Chrono Trigger || 2006 |- | Blood on the Asphalt || Super Street Fighter II Turbo || 2006 |- | Project Chaos || Sonic 3 & Knuckles || 2006 |- | ReCapitated || Sonic the Hedgehog 3: IceCap Zone (April Fools' Day joke) || 2007 |- | Voices of the Lifestream || Final Fantasy VII || 2007 |- | Thieves of Fate || || 2008 |- | Delta-Q-Delta || || 2008 |- | OC ReMix: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Official Soundtrack || Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix || 2008 |- | Summoning of Spirits || Tales series || 2009 |- | Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption || Final Fantasy IV || 2009 |- | Humans + Gears || Xenogears || 2009 |- | Sonata of the Damned || Castlevania series || 2009 |- | Serious Monkey Business || || 2010 |- | The Fabled Warriors ~I. WIND~ || Final Fantasy V || 2010 |- | The Root of All Evil || Teen Agent || 2010 |- | Threshold of a Dream || || 2010 |- | The Answer || Armored Core series || 2011 |} |}

Reception

The community has grown through word of mouth and mention of the website in several publications and on several websites. Spin magazine, PC Gamer magazine, 1UP.com, IGN, Game Informer magazine, Nintendo Power magazine, and others.

Industry reaction

According to a 2005 interview, the organization has never received negative feedback from a game composer or game publisher, and Lloyd stated, "Like all communities surrounding fan works, we're out, first and foremost, to honor that which we love, and I think the concept and goals have been well received all around." OverClocked ReMix has also been praised for its work by several industry figures including Doom lead designer John Romero, Tommy Tallarico, "The Fat Man" George Sanger, and Jeremy Soule.

In late 2002, the first OC ReMix by a veteran professional game composer was released, The 7th Guest "Fat Dance" by "The Fat Man" George Sanger. In early 2004, this was followed by the second ReMix of its kind, Final Fantasy VI "Squaresoft Variation" by Jeremy Soule, who dedicated the arrangement to both OC ReMix founder David W. Lloyd and Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu. In 2005, Sanger provided another ReMix performed alongside Team Fat colleagues and game composers, Dave Govett, Joe McDermott and K. Weston Phelan, entitled Wing Commander "Wing Theme Surf." Tommy Tallarico Studios' Earthworm Jim Anthology marked the first release of OC ReMixes on a commercial video game music album in late 2006. In October 2009, composer Alexander Brandon and ReMixer Jimmy "Big Giant Circles" Hinson collaborated to arrange a track Brandon composed for the game Deus Ex. In March 2010, OC ReMix released its ReMix album, Serious Monkey Business, featuring a closing track performed by the game's original composer, David Wise, alongside Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland, three composers with ties to Rare's Donkey Kong Country/Land franchise.

Several artists beginning as amateurs, many directly drawn to video game music arrangement by OC ReMix, have seen their interest in video game music catalyze into professional music opportunities, including Dain "Beatdrop" Olsen (Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2), Jillian "pixietricks" Aversa (), Andrew "zircon" Aversa () and Jimmy "Big Giant Circles" Hinson (Mass Effect 2).

Beginning in 2008, at the invitation of Tommy Tallarico, OC ReMix promotional CDs have been given away as contest prizes at every performance of orchestral game music concert series, Video Games Live; OC ReMixes were played in the concert hall before the show at the June 29 and June 30, 2007 Kennedy Center performances in Washington, D.C.

References

External links

Official Website (RSS)

djpretzel's Homepage

Chipamp - OverClocked ReMix-sponsored video game music sound format plugin bundle for Winamp

OCR Radio - Official OverClocked ReMix radio stream

VG Frequency - Official OverClocked ReMix blog

VGDJ - Official OverClocked ReMix podcast

Category:Community websites Category:Internet forums Category:Internet properties established in 1999 Category:Music organizations Category:Music websites Category:Video game composers Category:Video game fansites Category:Video game music websites Category:Virtual communities

Name	Jacob "Jake" Kaufman
Alias	virt
Background	non_performing_personnel
Born	April 03, 1981
Occupation	Composer, Remixer
Years active	2000–present
Label	Big Lion Music

Jacob "Jake" Kaufman (also known as virt) (born April 3, 1981) is an American video game music composer. After starting out creating arrangements and remixes of video game soundtracks, he began his commercial composing career in 2000 with the score to a port of Q*Bert. He continued to compose music for games for the next couple of years, working primarily with handheld video games. In 2002, he set up the website VGMix, which hosts video game music remixes, and continues to administer it. His career began to take off over the next few years, resulting in him transitioning jobs into a full-time freelance composer by 2005. Since then he has worked on several big-name projects such as Contra 4 and , his latest score. Kaufman is married to Kristi Kaufman, and lives with her and their puggle Nugget in Los Angeles.

Biography

Jake Kaufman was born in America on April 3, 1981. Kaufman dropped out of high school, with what he describes as "a total lack of work ethic and no concept of timeliness or organization". He spent the next few years composing arrangements and remixes of video game music under the alias "virt". In 2000, Kaufman broke into the video game industry as a composer; his first work was the Game Boy Color port of Q*Bert. Over the next few years, he composed the music to several Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. In 2002, Kaufman was one of the co-founders of the website VGMix, which hosts video game music remixes. VGMix has been described as being just as influential as OverClocked ReMix, the other major video game music arrangement hosting site.

During 2002-2005, his career as a video game music composer began to take off. By 2005, he was a full-time freelance video game composer. He continues to compose music to increasingly big-name projects, such as Contra 4 and TMNT in 2007 and in 2009; he describes composing the soundtrack to a Contra game and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game as his "lifelong dream". Kaufman contributed a track to the official arranged album of music from . He was a full-time employee of Volition, Inc. while working on Red Faction, but in January 2010 he left the company to become the "lead audio guy" for WayForward Technologies, for which he has already composed several soundtracks such as those of Shantae and Contra 4. For WayForward he has composed the soundtrack to , the sequel to the game he worked on ten years prior. Kaufman is married to Kristi Kaufman, and lives with her and their puggle Nugget in northern Los Angeles where WayForward Technologies is located.

Discography

Video games

Q*Bert (2000)

Drymouth (2000)

Tennis Masters Series (2001)

M & M's Minis Madness (2001)

David Beckham Soccer (2001)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (2001) - Game Boy Color

Atlantis - The Lost Empire (2001)

X-Blade Inline Skater (2001)

The Scorpion King - Sword of Osiris (2002)

Karnaaj Rally (2002)

(2002)

The Scorpion King (2002)

Shantae (2002)

Micro Machines (2002) - Game Boy Color version

Paragon 5 Pinball (2002) - with others

Rugrats: I Gotta Go Party (2002)

Spy Hunter / Super Sprint (2005)

Juka and the Monophonic Menace (2005)

Legend of Kay (2005)

(2005)

Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree (2005)

Uno 52 (2006)

Platinum Mahjong (2006)

(2006)

Contra 4 (2007)

TMNT (2007)

Cranium Kabookii (2007)

My Secret World by Imagine (2008)

(2009)

(2010)

(2010)

Film

Press Start (2007)

Rampage (Korkusuz) (2009)

References

External links

Official website and blog

VGMix

Older VGMix blog

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:American composers Category:Tracker musicians Category:Video game composers