Slashdot Mirror
Kong in Concert - Donkey Kong Country Arrangements
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."
Did you have to pay any kind of lisencing fees to Nintendo? If so, how much did that cost?
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Need some clarification, though; does this mean my band can do a cool cover version of the theme without worry?
I know this is probably a very simple question, but if you're taking someone else's work and remixing it, doesn't that mean you have some obligation to the original composer? What's to prevent Nintendo from sending in the lawyers to stop this?
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...
Umm... Minibosses are a rock band who play NES songs, gamingfm is a streaming site to hear game songs (or remixes).
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.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I hate to be a wet blanket, and a redundant one at that, but unfortunately, this is a derivative work and as such the original owners can demand royalties.
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.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
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.
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
*my friend had me do a blind listening test & I picked out the FLAC over the [256kbps nominal] ogg 5/6 times.
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
I downloaded all the tracks directly (BT was going very slow, and I'm impatient) and am listening to them right now. I'm impressed. Some of them don't sound like they were done on synths, they sound orchestrated.
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 game. It would certainly add some new depth.
The one thing I found interesting about Donkey Kong Country's music is that a lot of the samples that were sound effects in the game were also music samples. These included the piano, which was the jingle when you got an extra life as well as the lead instrument in the first level. Another example I can think of is the heavy, metallic sounds in the industrial level music which also served as the sound the mine cart made when you landed back on the tracks.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
This isn't the first time the Overclocked Remix guys have come together to make a tribute album for a Super Nintendo game.
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.
If you think all game music is repetitive MIDI stuff on a level with Pong...Then you haven't listened to the right games. There are many, many titles out there with wonderful music - often RPG's(Final Fantasy series, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, etc.), and some of the newer fighting and action games will have decent rock-type soundtracks as well.
Experiment a bit, listen to tracks on places like OCRemix, you might be suprised what you find.