CMC - Conceptual Music Competition 14: Dreams and Visions

[Abadoss]

CMC: Conceptual Music Competition
http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/sigs/abadoss-CMC.jpg

This competition is based on the rules of the classic TOMC (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/TOMC.htm) (Thematic Original Music Competition).

The CMC (Conceptual Music Competition) is designed so that each participant enters a piece of music based on a set theme. The participants take the theme and interpret it as they will to come up with something that fits. Any style can work, as long as it portrays a sense of what the theme is.

Feel free to be imaginative!

Each successive theme will be chosen by the winner of the previous competition. For example, say the theme of the last competition, CMC 21, was "Sucked Under" and the winner, Harvey, submitted a piece that knocked the socks off of everyone, so he won. Harvey then gets to decide the theme for CMC 22.

This competition is open to registered members of the forums of
OverClocked ReMix (http://www.ocremix.org), VGMix (http://www.vgmix.com), Ormgas (http://oc.ormgas.com), VGMusic (http://www.vgmusic.com), Gaming World (http://www.gamingw.net), and Young Composers (http://www.youngcomposers.com).

http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/CMC13-forums.jpg

CMC 14: Dreams and Visions
"It can be any type, of any time, place, or thing. It's what you see when you sleep. Scenes of flowers and fields, or maybe a foreboding zombie-filled graveyard. Perhaps you even wake up inside a painting or an upside-down world. Where 'No' is 'Yes' and 'Yes' is 'No.' Nothing makes sense here. But all the more sense to you." -Blue.Nocturne

Results!:
Text results and critiques (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/CMC14_Results.txt)

There are 11 entries for this round...

HoboKa - "Argitoth's Drug-Intake Dreams (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/HoboKa_-_Argitoths_Drug-Intake_Dreams_CMC14.mp3)"

"Yes, this is a crack-induced song written by a deranged person who doesn't need drugs to be crazy. Hehe, you can bash me next round Argitoth :D...hokay, so it's about our best friend Argitoth, who is having a screwed up dream after OD'ing on drugs, I gave the song a static-y, muddy feel with weird synths and dissonance. Have a happy trip >:- D."

Reaktorz0 - "Untitled (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/ktorbo_-_CMC14.mp3)"

No description given.

Johnny Burt - "The World Beyond the Dream (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Johnny_Burt_-_The_World_Beyond_the_Dream_CMC14.mp3)"

"There lies a world beyond this reality. Behind this corporeal world. A grayscape where anything is possible, and everything is probable... A realm where 'possibility' is only limited by the will of the Dreamers or Outsiders- those with the potential to shape and bend the dreamscape as they see fit. One such being, a young woman named Moon, awakens in the world beyond the dream for the first time, finding it in utter disarray at the hands of an evil entity called Nightmare. Frightened, and with no understanding of this strange and exciting world, she finds herself next in a long line of Outsiders that have been charged with the task of defeating Nightmare. What adventures await her on her journey?"

larsdood - "My Kind of Nightmare (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/larsdood_-_My_Kind_of_Nightmare_CMC14.mp3)"

"The kind of Nightmare I'd get. Where you gradually slide from the logical to the absurd... topped by breakbeat chaos."

Dev - "Visions I See (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Dev_-_Visions_I_See_CMC14.mp3)"

"It's just an ambient version of what goes through my head as I lay in bed either asleep or getting that way."

Blue.Nocturne - "Dreams of Utopia (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Blue.Nocturne_-_Dreams_of_Utopia_CMC14.mp3)"

"Frustrated with the world and tired from stress, you go to bed. You just want one moment of your life where there is peace, and you happen to have a dream of peace and serenity. This musical piece itself is the dream you experience. It is the dream of a land where everything works as you want it to work. It is a highly technology world, however the circuits only add to the beauty of the place you envision. It is the dream of the perfect utopia. It is sadly a short dream, but when you awake, you feel refreshed and ready to take on the world yet again."

Chief - "A Beautiful Mind (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Chief_-_A_Beautiful_Mind_CMC14.mp3)"

"My original intentions with this piece was to portray the mystique of the human mind, as you can hear clearly in the beginning. I went where this piece took me, though, and it took me to many more dimensions, and it now sounds like a journey through the human mind. You will hear many ugly sounds, many beautiful ones, and many in between.

As a result of this, this piece has ended up portraying the mystery, complexity, power, and most importantly, the beauty of the human mind."

Ferdinand Schenck - "Dreams of the Innocent (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Ferdinand_Schenck_-_Dreams_of_the_Innocent_CMC14.mp3)"

"'Dreams of the Innocent' is based on a childish dream, sometimes vague, sometimes vivid, with various sections describing different moods or pieces of the dream.

0:00 : Down the rabbit hole

Cliche'd title, I know.
This is the entry into the unknown, a scary journey into another world, i.e. the start of the dream.

0:11 : Waltz of the Clowns

A familiar and pleasant sight greets the dreamer: clowns!
The dreamer is in a magical place, bright colours and happy biengs, although with just a hint of forboding...

0:52 : The Dragon

The peace is disturbed... the Dragon has come to wreak havoc...
The dreamer faces the Dragon: huge, vicious and scary!

1:27 : The Tower

The dreamer has been taken hostage by the Dragon, and now sits in a lonely cell in a high tower.

1:43 : Imprisonment

Time passes slowly, the dreamer has been imprisoned for what feels like days, months, years...

2:12 : Entry of the White Knight, Bringer of Dawn

Just when all hope is lost, in comes the White Knight, slayer of the Dragon and vanquisher of evil.
The White Knight escorts the dreamer home, with praise and jubilation from all sides as they lead a procession through town.
End of the dream the beginning of day."

Numegil - "Delusionary Storm (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Numegil_-_Delusionary_Storm_CMC14.mp3)"

"It is a dark and stormy night. You lay exhausted from the previous day's blights, but lie unable to fully submerge into sleep. The world around drifts in and out of focus as you travel through the delusions of your own tired mind. Nothing seems to linger for more than a few seconds, and the world and mood around you seem to shift effortlessly from one world to another, without any forewarning."

Gimgak - "Rapid Eye Movement (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Gimgak_-_Rapid_Eye_Movement_CMC14.mp3)"

"This song has a pretty general theme. At the begining some one is falling asleep and slowly drifting off into the world of their dreams. The bulk of the song is the dream that they are have, and then at the very end, they wake up."

Virtualshock - "Dreamland (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Virtualshock_-_Dreamland_CMC14.mp3)"

"DreamLand is a calming tranquil piece. This is one of your few pleasant ones. You treasure it as you slowly float through space, taking in every thing around you.
(Note-Terrible clarinet sample, please don't judge by it)"

Voting Rules!:
Voters will be allowed to pick a first place (3 points) and any number of honorary mentions (1 point). Only one set of votes from any one voter will be accepted and a person cannot vote for any one piece more than once. Corrections to votes, from the original voter only, will be accepted, but corrections will void the previous votes. Basically, a voter can vote and correct the vote, but only the final form of that vote will be counted. Send all votes to Abadoss by PM (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=1901). Please include any and all constructive critiques (not to be confused with bashing) about them with your votes as well, so that there's always a sense of growth in the artform. If you wish to remain anonymous, just state so in your PM. Thanks.
The voting period will last from the moment the entries are posted in the thread to the Saturday of that week. The voting period for this round ends December 8, so be sure to spend some time really listening to the pieces.
Any participant in the competition can vote, but not for their own pieces. However, in an effort to encourage voting among participants, any participant who votes will have 2 points added to their voting score.

Official Rules!:
Each piece must be originally composed for this competition. Arrangements and remixes will not be accepted. (Pieces composed by the participant prior to the competition will not be accepted.)
Each piece must be 2:00 or longer and match the competition theme.
Only one entry per person. Collaborations will be allowed, but each collaborator may not submit any other pieces. (This also means that a person cannot collaborate on two or more different pieces at the same time.)
A link to the entry piece must be PMed to Abadoss (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=1901) prior to the deadline set for each competition. DO NOT POST THE LINK IN THE THREAD! However, feel free to post in the WIP:Other (http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=24) forum.
Important: Each file must be labelled accordingly: Composer_Name_-_Composition_Title_CMC#.mp3
(For example, if Sarah Gonzales submits a piece called "Parade Down Memory Lane" to CMC 20, then her filename would be: Sarah_Gonzales_-_Parade_Down_Memory_Lane_CMC20.mp3)
MP3 file format is required. Know that even OGG will need to be converted into MP3. (If someone is unable to do so themselves, Abadoss would be willing and able to do it for them.)
Entries should be accompanied by a description and/or story to help listeners understand what the piece is about. (Not required, though.)
All entries must be submitted by Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 11:59 PM - PST, GMT-8.

You can find the competition threads for each forum listed below:
OverClocked ReMix: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13044
VGMix: http://www.vgmix.com/vg25/viewtopic.php?id=8706
Ormgas: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?2.19549
VGMusic: http://www.vgmusic.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9876
Gaming World: http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=66397.0
Young Composers: http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/conceptual-music-competition-14-dreams-visions-12099.html

Good luck and have fun! :D

Previous CMCs: http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC.htm

[Argitoth]

oh my gosh... not again. We have another theme that has no definitive mood, it can basically be anything just like the theme says, "Scenes of flowers and fields, or maybe a foreboding zombie-filled graveyard."

It seems like the Conceptual Music Competition never defined what a theme should be. I thought the definition was a theme that explains scenes or actions, but the actual definition of a theme according to the CMC is more of a given idea where the participants can interpret and create their own scenes and actions through the description of their composition when they submit it, and then they compose based on their own ideas, and not exactly the CMC's current theme.

It just makes it harder when we aren't limited to specified scenes and actions. I think CMC should adopt a new rule that themes should define a specific mood. For example, the theme could have been "a dream of flowers and fields, period."

[Abadoss]

It's like this; artists are given the freedom to interpret the theme as necessary to convey the concept. Hence, Conceptual Music Competition.

[blue.nocturne]

I just feel that having more freedom will encourage participation. For instance, someone may hate "zombie-filled graveyards" as a theme and would prefer composing to "flowery fields." Another person may feel the exact opposite. By having an open theme, it appeases more people and you have to freedom to do what you want to do.

Also if you beat me this time, you can make it strictly one idea.

That is IF you beat me. :<

[Ronyn]

It's been a while since I've composed some original music, but if there are no objections, I'd love to give this one a shot.

And if you think about it, dreaming itself is an underlying theme, doesn't matter what the dream is.

Who judges these btw?

I'm going to give you guys a run for your money. I've been dying to get my comp on for two years >:) bring it...

[HoboKa]

got a phater beat going on this time :P, you've got some tough competition now Blue :P, bwahaahaha.

[Argitoth]

When I think of dream, I think of ambient music. I don't think phat beats will work well.

[Alex Smith]

got a phater beat going on this time :P, you've got some tough competition now Blue :P, bwahaahaha.

Haha phater beat? I'll just have to make an even phater beat then!

[Abadoss]

Who judges these btw?

Anyone and everyone that listens judges the entries. Winners are determined by vote.

[HoboKa]

Haha phater beat? I'll just have to make an even phater beat then!

fatter, phatter...it's all the same lol

[HoboKa]

When I think of dream, I think of ambient music. I don't think phat beats will work well.

yes, but my song is real weird and unorthodox >_< its gonna be based on a crack-induced dream.

[Argitoth]

yes, but my song is real weird and unorthodox >_< its gonna be based on a crack-induced dream.

I think you mean crack-induced composition. You should really watch your drug intake.

[HoboKa]

I'll watch your drug intake!

[Abadoss]

Don't make me seperate you two!

By the way, I'm thinking of taking on two or three permanent, non-competing people who would be willing to check entries for violations - specifically plagarism. I'm not settled on the idea yet or how I'd go about implementing it, but, if anyone is interested, I'd like to know. I'd just rather not have what happened last round happen again.

[Argitoth]

How would anyone be able to tell if someone copied another tune? Unless someone has basically heard every melody ever created. Oh I see, someone would listen to it before you post the submissions. That still doesn't solve the fact that it's hard to tell.

[HoboKa]

well it's nearly impossible to make an authentic tune these days - it's almost all been done before. Frick, "new age" orchestra stuff regurgitates a lot of the classical music anyways; rock music pretty much all been done before - rap just steals other tunes and puts a "phat" beat on them...I could probably pull a better beat out of my ass than most of the current crud on MTV. Anyways...for all I know, I could create a song that's the exact riff that some other underground/unknown guy made w/out ever knowing it T_T.

So, I dunno how you would go about blamming them Abadoss. I mean if someone takes an entire song and midi rips it or something, then obviously - that's plagiarisms, but where would one draw the line on the less obvious stuff??

X_x

[Abadoss]

I'm mostly talking about the blatant stuff. For example, I missed the one in the last round, simply because I've never played Final Fantasy XII before. However, the point of having two or three people on it is so there's a broader base of musical exposure. That way, there's less chance of it happening.

And it's true that it's really difficult to come up with something that hasn't been done before, but that shouldn't stop us from trying.

[Alex Smith]

I think I would make better compositions if I stop worrying all the time about whether these "three notes sound generic", or "that chord sequence sounds generic".

I'm always too busy trying to come up with something that's "never been done before", when in reality the majority of the time I end up composing something too obscure and strange because of it.

The reason a lot of chord sequences are used so often is because they work and sound good!

[Abadoss]

That's true. Besides, there are only a limited amount of chords you can actually come up with. By the way, there's a very interesting theory put out by Dmitri Tynoczko concerning progression through all the chords out there. He calls it Chord Geometry. Now, this isn't going to make you fantastic composer, but it might help in some areas.

[CopiousX]

I'm thinking pan's labyrnth

[Argitoth]

I think I'm going to wait for the next CMC, I'm too busy and this one is too far off what I need to practice composing right now.

[prophetik music]

I think I'm going to wait for the next CMC, I'm too busy and this one is too far off what I need to practice composing right now.

same here, unfortunately. i'll still pimp it in my sig, though

[HoboKa]

ok so I gave up on the phat beat idea >.>, going for an abstract/weird feel

[Maquis]

Got some ideas; it'll just be a question of sitting down and trying to make them work together. Had to do some marathon composing last month, but I should be re-fueled by now.

[HoboKa]

heh, any one else submitted their songs yet? Mine's done >_>

[Ronyn]

Another project came up I don't think I can try out this time around :'(

Oh well, I can still vote right?

[Abadoss]

Certainly. You can still vote...

[Gimgak]

You can expect a track from me this round.

[Abadoss]

All entries are posted! Time to vote!

{edit} - I added Gimgak and virtualshock's pieces, as they were victim to unfortunate circumstances in the submission process. Anyway, to avoid similar instances, please always e-mail me at my Yahoo account (Abadoss@yahoo.com). I will now be including that in the rules and such. Please listen to these two pieces, along with all the others and vote accordingly.

[HoboKa]

crosses fingers

[blue.nocturne]

Hmm, I was just looking over the songs.. and Johnny Burt's song had:
" 00000E28 00000FC0 00010D77 00" under his ID3v1 tag and under encoded he had "iTunes v6.0.5."

It raises a lot of suspicion...

[Abadoss]

Not necessarily. I have to do all my ID3v1 tags in WinAmp. It's very likely he did his tags in iTunes.

[Johnny Burt]

Hmm, I was just looking over the songs.. and Johnny Burt's song had:
" 00000E28 00000FC0 00010D77 00" under his ID3v1 tag and under encoded he had "iTunes v6.0.5."

It raises a lot of suspicion...


To ease suspicions, I had to use Itunes to convert my wav file to MP3 since I'm working on a new mac and don't have access to NERO file converter and I didn't like the sound quality of Cubase's exported MP3s. :P If anyone knows of a good file converter for mac let me know.

[HoboKa]

Hmm, I was just looking over the songs.. and Johnny Burt's song had:
" 00000E28 00000FC0 00010D77 00" under his ID3v1 tag and under encoded he had "iTunes v6.0.5."

It raises a lot of suspicion...

you're just jealous :P




...j/k

[Argitoth]

Is there still time to vote?!?!?! damnit. Does it end saturday night or what?

[Abadoss]

Yeah. It ends at 11:59 PM, Saturday (aka today) night in the Pacific Time Zone...

[Abadoss]

The results are in!

[HoboKa]

Yeah I deserved last place, especially for poking fun at Argitoth >_<. Next run I'll try not to be as stupid when making the CMC. I'm glad you didn't get mad at me though Elan :D, even though I got a bit carried away there. Thanks for the honorable mention =D. Every one else did wondefuly, I especially liked Blue.Nocturne's renditon, grats all.

[blue.nocturne]

I'm really surprised that I won. There were a lot of good entries, so I thought that I lost for sure.

To HoboKa: Even though you lose, I feel that you are getting better and better each time. These contests are about practicing composition and improving. Abadoss doesn't throw cash at the winner, so it's best to have fun and learn new ways/styles of composition. For your case, I think you need to work a lot on fine-tuning tone and texture of your pieces. You have a lot of good ideas, but your pieces are usually a tad too loud and hit the "red zone" on volume. FL has a little volume meter at the top and usually when it fills up all the way (it looks red when that loud), the sound begins to crackle and pop due to it being too loud. Also try playing around with velocity a lot, even a centimeter of velocity difference between notes can make the whole song sound a lot better.

To Johnny Burt: Sorry about the suspicion, I never knew iTunes left such a strange imprint with the 00000E28 and stuff. Usually songs ripped from games have marks like that, and since your piece was pretty well made, it seemed like a possibility.

To Numegil, Gimgak, larsdood: I really like your pieces and seriously thought I'd lose to one of you. Numegil has this really amazing ambient thing going on and it is really theme fitting. larsdood set up a really crazy beat and it really felt nightmarish. Loved all the effects and filters that you used. Gimgak's song has really great balance and the melody was also very strong. One of the most addicting techno songs I have heard yet.

All in all, good job everyone.

O yeah and Sytrus Oort Cloud is the win.

[HoboKa]

hehe nice I use sytrus too...I want to get my hands on some bigger synths out there someday >_<...when I finally get enough money to justify spending it on samples w/out my parents going wtf!!

[Argitoth]

???????????............

I'm going to win next round, don't worry.

[prophetik music]

just make sure to post the next round when it's created!

[Gimgak]

w00t! Second place!

I guess that's pretty good considering how good the entries were overall. Good job everyone!

Can't wait for the next round.

[Abadoss]

The next round is up! Here's the link:

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13613