Kong in Concert - Donkey Kong Country Arrangements 199
Digital Coma writes "Kong in Concert, a project directed by myself and coordinated by familiar artists of the unofficial game music arrangement community, has been released at
http://dkcproject.ocremix.org and spotlighted at OverClocked ReMix. Its purpose is to pay respects to the excellent Donkey Kong Country SNES soundtrack and honor its composers with 22 rearrangements (or ReMixes) of every song from the game in high quality MP3 and OGG. We also have a BitTorrent distribution of the album's whole WAV compilation. If you like the idea of free, non-commercial videogame remixes, check us out."
WooHoo! (Score:5, Funny)
One Question: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:One Question: (Score:2)
Re:One Question: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:One Question: (Score:1, Offtopic)
Fortunately for youthey stopped. Great band though.
Re:One Question: (Score:2)
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002153.shtml [lessig.org]
Re:One Question: (Score:5, Informative)
This project is not licensed. We didn't ask for permission.
This is a project done by fans, for fans.
Nintendo is 100% within their rights to send us a cease-and-desist order if they choose to. However, Nintendo has shown no animosity towards such projects in the past and I suppose they won't show any towards this one either.
But who knows? just enjoy the music.
cheers.
Quite Cool.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Free? (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is a bad idea or anything, (it's not my thing) but just wanted some clarification...
Re:Free? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the same situation as ProdigyRemixed.com [prodigyremixed.com]... I believe that getting permission from the artists whose work has been sampled is quite mandatory in order to stay in compliance with the law. A lot of this underground remixing-for-free stuff seems to do pretty well and not get prosecuted, but you're right, there's really nothing stopping the lawyers from (at the least) sending a C+D, or (at the worst) suing their asses into oblivion.
Here's hoping they don't do that, though. If they're smart they'll realize that, while it's a clear case of copyright infringement, there's no way this is going to cut into their actual product sales at all.
RIAA (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure. 'Cause the RIAA feels the same way about P2P filesharing, I'm sure. I'll buy that piracy - real piracy - in Asia & Eastern Europe is cutting into their [hugely inflated] profit margin, but not P2P, remixes. etc.
Re:Free? (Score:4, Interesting)
More about it here: http://www.modarchive.com/rippers.shtml [modarchive.com]
C64 Remix scene pays royalties (Score:3, Informative)
It was organised by a guy called Chris Abbott, and his company C64Audio.com [c64audio.com] now represents many of original 1980's C64 musicians and licenses their music. To date he's paid over £20,000 in royalites to the original musicians.
So the C64 scene shows you can have a vibrant remix community, whilst giving credit to the original composers and
Re:C64 Remix scene pays royalties (Score:2)
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a guy who synthesizes popular music on Adlib and puts in a cheesy voice synth - all on a 386.
Need a Mechanical License (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Free? (Score:2)
Overclocked Remix [ocremix.org] has been around for a few years, and I don't think they've ever had a lawsuit.
Re:Free? (Score:2)
WTF? (Score:1, Interesting)
The point is, stuff like this isn't remotely new or news. I'm guessing this is a buddy of someone on slashdot or VA, or they are paying for the advertisement.
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
The point is not to highlight covers or remixes of BGM as a new concept, but to indicate a new release of material within that genre.
If I were as conspiratorial as you I would insinuate that you were a fan/flunky of one of the other
nope... (Score:2, Informative)
well as one of the guys who worked on this project, I can tell you now, none of us know any of the slashdot editors.
I actually urged the project leader not to submit this story to slashdot -- because I've been here a while and I didn't feel this was slashdot material.
Looks like I was wrong! Maybe Hemos is a DKC fan
cheers.
Re:nope... (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Maybe if you would like to plug your favorite game songs site, then you can and it might also be posted. Fairly simple, I think. Not eve
DKC... (Score:1)
It's been a while since I actually found a game that interested me. Most games nowadays are all graphics and little story, or if there is a story, it sucks.
I miss the old days.
Re:DKC... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:DKC... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:DKC... (Score:1)
Re:DKC... (Score:2)
Draft CowboyNeal... (Score:5, Funny)
I never realized there was a following... (Score:4, Funny)
No joke.
David Wise. (Score:2)
I'm surprised he hasn't released any solo CDs, because he's awesome.
Re:I never realized there was a following... (Score:2)
Yeah, I'll admit I taped a lot of the soundtrack too. The underwater music was very nice, and comparable to Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent) in terms of sublime background music.
Re:I never realized there was a following... (Score:2, Informative)
My first journey to the cool new-fangled music compression systems was when I tried to record DKC music through the sound card line-in. I compressed the files in Linux using the MPEG reference encoder to Layer II at 64 kbps. The songs fit nicely on floppy =)
Can't remember exactly when this was, but this was back in the Era Before Napster... anyway, it was in the time when the king in the MP3 encoding was l3enc, shareware, the only alternative to use - and I was desperately waiting for a GPL'd MP3 encoder.
Huh? (Score:1, Flamebait)
That's the funniest thing I've heard all day!
Game music (Score:5, Informative)
Also, for Commodore/Atari ST fans, there's Nectarine Radio. [scenemusic.net]
Re:Game music (Score:4, Informative)
If you haven't heard of Machinae Supremacy [machinaesupremacy.com] yet, I recommend you check them out. They are a very cool Swedish band who mix different styles, play with synths a lot, and are self-professed gaming nuts.
In the current context, The Great Gianna Sisters [machinaesupremacy.com] is particularily salient. It's a remix of / tribute to the theme song of the C64 game of the same name. Excellent stuff.
Re:Game music (Score:2)
Re:Game music (Score:2)
Re:Game music (Score:1)
Relics of the Chozo (Score:5, Informative)
Just my $.02...
Re:Relics of the Chozo (Score:2)
Re:Relics of the Chozo (Score:1)
having to remember to install an extra codec on a clean machine, as well as having to push OGG on anyone who I'd like to send a sample to (i have several ocremix fan friends) is a hassle
Not in my experience. Anybody who has recent Nullsoft Winamp already has an Ogg Vorbis decoder.
Re:Relics of the Chozo (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Relics of the Chozo (Score:2)
Re:Relics of the Chozo (Score:3, Interesting)
Indeed, and that's why it's so strange this got a Slashdot story. ocremix.org/remix.overclocked.org has been hosting any number of similar projects for years now (since 2000 at least).
A story to the effect, "hey look, someone remixed an SNES soundtrack!" at this point seems a bit silly.
How about a remix of the Mule soundtrack? (Score:2)
Re:How about a remix of the Mule soundtrack? (Score:2)
Re:How about a remix of the Mule soundtrack? (Score:2)
" 22 rearrangements (or ReMixes) of every song " (Score:3, Funny)
Re:" 22 rearrangements (or ReMixes) of every song (Score:2)
Not that I'm against remixing this song...
No FLACs? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No FLACs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Eh, not much smaller. About 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the wave. Still, that's 2-3x the number of losslessly ripped albums you can store. I rip FLAC for my favorite albums, and Ogg for everything else. And yes, I do hear the difference over by 24/96 sound card, nice HK receiver, & good speakers*.
*my friend had me do a b
Re:No FLACs? (Score:2)
-Bullseye
Re: (Score:2)
Re:No FLACs? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
know your facts.... (Score:2)
If you are lazy: winrar packs 1070MB wav songs to 680MB, quite a bit more than 5-10%.
ARG URL here (Score:2)
(never wondered what "multimedia compression" in the rar option menue was about? Every good compressor knows the major filetypes and parses them correctly (ok, winzip NOT)
Re:know your facts.... (Score:2)
I just didnt want to leave this "only flac can losslessly compress audio better than maybe 5 or 10%" uncorrected. Of course flac has much more sp
Re:No FLACs? (Score:2)
mario music videos??? (Score:1)
(slightly offtopic, but...)
I have been searching high and low for two videos I saw in the past but do not posess. One is a video of a japanese guy doing the super mario soundtrack on a piano while blindfolded. The other is a different guy doing parts of the same soundtrack on an electric guitar.
If anyone has a bittorrent/direct link to these, I (and I bet many other slashdotters) would really like to lay my hands on them...
Re:mario music videos??? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:mario music videos??? (Score:1)
I swear I looked through that whole site. I SWEAR IT!
KHANNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!
(Thanks for the confirmation on location, I will crawl into my hidey-hole of ineptitude now...)
Re:mario music videos??? (Score:2)
Re:mario music videos??? (Score:2)
I'm not quite sure why people are so impressed by this. Playing the piano is very much based on muscle memory. A pianist knows where the keys are by touch. If you need to look at the keys to figure out where you're going next, you won't be able to play the thing.
Think of it this way. If you're playing CounterStrike against a guy who has to keep looking at the keyboard to find whatever key he needs next, d
Universal slashdot translated summary (Score:5, Funny)
translates to:
"If you want to hear the one genre of music guaranteed not to get you laid, check us out."
Was the concert produced by... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Was the concert produced by... (Score:2)
If you want the entire original soundtrack... (Score:5, Informative)
Then go here for the Winamp SPC plugin: http://www.zophar.net/utilities/spc.html [zophar.net]
Licensing issues (Score:4, Interesting)
The USA has a concept called "mandatory licensing" when it comes to music. This means for some uses, such as using clips from many pieces in a compilation work or playing a song on the air, the owners cannot STOP you outright. However, they can demand payment.
There was a case in the '40s or '50s or maybe early '60s where an artist took clips from a bunch of other songs and made a compilation work. The rights-holders of the original works sued to block it. The new work's artist claimed free speech and claimed Congress could not create a copyright law that would infringe his right to be creative. The US Supreme Court basically said no, Congress could not create a law to STOP him from being creative, but that the original artists were entitled to compensation.
Source: Some radio program in the last year or two. I think I heard it on a public radio station but don't quote me on that.
The bottom line:
Assuming this is still the law, Nintendo may come after you, but if you've got the money to pay them off you can make them go away and keep distributing your creative work.
Nintendo may be able to prevent you from distributing in or to certain other countries, I don't know the law worldwide.
Harry Fox McCloud (Score:1)
For more information about what copyright law calls compulsory licensing of musical works for mechanical reproduction, go look up "mechanical licensing" or "Harry Fox Agency" on Google. It costs about 8.5 cents per song per copy.
So iTunes is 900% profit? (Score:1)
It would be very nice to know how much - or how little - of an iTunes purchase is going back to the record companies and to artists residuals, and how much goes to cover Apple's costs and profit.
Re:So iTunes is 900% profit? (Score:1)
Songwriters vs. recording artists (Score:2)
If I recall correctly, the music store gets about a third of the sale price. The songwriter (who is not always the recording artist) and his publisher get the statutory 8.5 cents. The codec developer gets a few cents. The record label gets the rest and (allegedly pretends to) give some to the recording artist.
Re:So iTunes is 900% profit? (Score:2)
34 cents is used by Apple for hardware, bandwidth, maintenance, and development.
They allegedly make no profit at all, and use it as a marketing venue for iPods, which still leaves them feeling pretty happy about it at the end of the day.
Re:Licensing issues (Score:1)
A more likely incentive (Score:1)
A *NICE* company would simply pay the freelance remixer to withdraw his work or better yet pay him to distribute his work commercially.
I doubt it will happen, but it would be sweet if Nintendo signed a contract with this guy letting him distribute his songs for free for non-commercial users, but have Nintendo sub-license the songs for commercial uses.
Even sweeter if Nintendo included the remix as a bonus item in a future game.
Not gonn
Nintendo isn't run by assholes (Score:2)
Props to the original composers of this and many other games though. SNES Midi stuff has elicited more emotion from me then any of the crap from x-box or ps2 games. "Oh cool, another bad european techno song"
Text Ads (Score:1)
Re:Text Ads (Score:1)
OMG (Score:1)
Australian law (Score:2, Informative)
Another ones (Score:1)
Commodore64 videogame remixes (Score:4, Informative)
There's also a webradio of this stuff: Slay Radio [c64.org]
Re:Commodore64 videogame remixes (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Commodore64 videogame remixes (Score:2)
Re:Commodore64 videogame remixes (Score:2)
Visa Roster were dressed slighty more upmarket than Ben "Jonny Depp in Pirates of the Carribean" Daglish though. :-)
And Jon Hare did good on the bass...
As I was listening to the music... (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyways, since all the tracks from the game are in this mix, why not hack or devise some way to be able to play the orginal game to this new music?
I've done some light ROM hacking before and I don't even know if this is possible, but I'm just saying, it would be cool to have the new music in the
Re:As I was listening to the music... (Score:2)
Why only torrent the wavs? (Score:2)
Sound sample conservation (Score:3, Interesting)
The only postive post (Score:4, Insightful)
OC remixs :D (Score:2)
I don't see how this is front page news but good luck guys and good luck in the future projects. Cough do secret of mana or Donkey kong country 2 cough
Did anyone read this as (Score:2, Funny)
Whew, for a second I thought Donkey Kong was going to be singing Achey Brakey heart or something. What a relief.
Many people have done this (Score:2)
I think the whole copyright issue is the problem, not a lack of people remixing. I've remixed the Streets of Rage theme (Streets of Rage has a great soundtrack and wonderful example of what can be done with just a few channels of FM synthesis and one of PCM samples), and I know someone who's remixed the Bubble Bobble theme. If companies would state that this kind of thing is OK when it's not for profit, we'd all see a lot of old remixes for the first time as well as many new ones.
Now a live jazz band play
Some more... (Score:2, Informative)
No, they didn't. (Score:2, Informative)
People on there also seem to think that Weird Al did every funny song ever, and System of a Down did a Zelda remix too(They didn't, the original's on OCR and has a statement from the band itself that it's not them)
Hell, Terra in Black [ocremix.org] has been credited to Madonna a few times on P2P networks. There's tons of other examples as well.
Re:Pong Symphony in blip minor (Score:3, Interesting)
Experiment a bit, listen to tracks on places like OCRemix, you might be suprised what you find.