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View Full Version : Conceptual Music Competition 5: Sunrise [Results]


Abadoss
03-02-2007, 02:30 AM
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 10, was "Earthquake" and the winner, Brendan, submitted a piece that knocked the socks off of everyone, so he won. Brendan then gets to decide the theme for CMC 11.

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), and VGMusic (http://www.vgmusic.com).

http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/CMC5-forums.jpg

CMC 5: Sunrise
"After the dark of night, the new day can be seen on the horizon..." -The Prophet of Mephisto

Results!:
Text results and critiques (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/CMC5_Results.txt)
Audio results (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/CMC5_Results.mp3)

There are 7 entries for this round...

Sir_NutS - "Bloody Sunrise (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Sir_NutS_-_Bloody_Sunrise_CMC5.mp3)"

"After the dark of night, a young soldier stands watching the sunrise, as the enemy approaches, the calm of early morning is broken by the warcries. After the heated battle, the blood-stained field recovers it's peaceful state."

stringfield - "Sunfield (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/stringfiend_-_Sunfield_CMC5.mp3)"

"This piece represents the way I want to be as I wake up when the sun rises in the morning, the annoyingly optimistic, bright, happy person who just springs out of bed at the crack of dawn ready for the day ahead. Of course I'm too lazy to be like that and usually a bit tired looking but we can all dream. Every sunrise that is want I want to be."

Chief - "A New Day on the Horizon (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Chief_-_A_New_Day_on_the_Horizon_CMC5.mp3)"

"This piece begins at the end of the night, while light is first appearing on the horizon. It continues to build while the sun rises, never declining until the end, when the sun has risen high into the sky."

Chavous - "Voices of the Angels (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Chavous_-_Voices_of_the_Angels_CMC5.mp3)"

"Out on a cliff overlooking the ocean, an old man lies deceased. His life was pure and his deeds good, so he is granted a spiritual burial. The mages gather around as day beings to break. The movements and speels all coordinate with the rising sun, and the magic must be completed exactly at sunrise.
:00-:38; The sky starts to become brighter.
1:22-2:05; the first suns rays arise.
2:05-2:46; the air of magic starts rising... the air gets steadily hotter, the sky turns brighter.
2:46-3:22; each mage inputs his or her own special magic, and the air grows hotter and tenser.
3:22-3:32; the sun is now fully risen, there is a flash of pure white light and...
3:32-the end; the old man is gone, the magic is disappated, the birds are singing and the sun is risen."

Extacide - "Dawn Upon Wings of Hope (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Extacide_-_Dawn_Upon_Wings_of_Hope_CMC5.mp3)"

"Amidst the plains, two armies of bitter enemies fight vigorously through the night. Defending their home land, the heroes have little hope as they are overwhelmed by the massive onslaught set out upon them from the hordes of darkness. From hours of bloodshed, light slowly waxes in the sky, the sun is slowly emerging, revealing the scarred faces through the helmets of the warriors. For one moment, peace is spread through out the plains. The fighting ceases, as everyone looks into the sky and sees sun emerging, the dawn of a new day. Hero and enemy alike halt their sword for the one moment they notice the sun rising. Warmth of the new day brings not only light, but hope to the heroes, that they may see the light of another day, a day when they are free from the grasp of the shadows that threaten to destroy them. For this one moment... the light of dawn carries the wings of hope into the sky..."

Simon Frisch - "Helios (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Simon_Frisch_-_Helios_CMC5.mp3)"

"I know atonality isn't for everyone but bear with me here. :) For the sake of your listening experience, just put thoughts of melody and harmony completely out of your head and listen to mood. The piece is extremely soft (sorry!), best to turn up your speakers.

Helios was the Greek God of the sun, who rode his chariot every day across the sky.

The beginning is entirely textual, dark and restless. There is no logic, only an engulfing sense of feeling lost. Gradually, the clouds clear and there is a sudden expectant calm. Then, one by one, shafts of light beginning appearing, more and more quickly until at last the sun is rising in all splendor. It is risen, and then thus the world is satisfied once more (cello solo; completes the melody that seemed to start but was interrupted before).

There remain, however, suggestions of something darker to return..."

Kris Davis - "A Million New Ways to Lose Yourself (http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC/Kris_Davis_-_A_Million_New_Ways_to_Lose_Yourself_CMC5.mp3)"

"At the current point in my life, the symbolic nature of a sunrise means various different, and equally important things to me.

'After the dark of night, the new day can be seen on the horizon...' - The Prophet of Mephisto

This is one interpretation, a fairly easy one to get people thinking about how this applies to their own life. Everyone goes through a rough patch now and then, and the whole 'Light at the end of the tunnel' idea is what keeps us going. Well, I'm just approaching the end of one such tunnel, and hopefully won't enter another one for at least...well I'll give it another few months anyway... For the last few weeks, the sunrise has meant the end of my day as such, time to go to bed, not the usual interpretation, but for us usually-nocturnal folk, that's the way it is, late night jobs are a pain :p

Like I said though, those days are soon to be behind me again, and I'm looking to start something new, let the past be the past and move on. I also love to travel..something that led to the last debacle..so...I've travelled south, I think I'm already in a Western enough world as it is without heading across the atlantic, north lies iceland and fuck all else. So east it is.

The Indian themes running through the song were inspired by someone I met not too long ago, and re-kindled my interest in her native Indian culture and musicians like Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, Nasrat Fateh Ali Khan, nitin Sawhney et all.

So, while an obvious choice, but a very appropriate and relevant one to me, my interpretation of Sunrise leads me down a road of discovering new and interesting ways to get lost in the world, make the most of life and keep looking towards the future, this time to an eastern horizon."

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 the following week. The voting period for this round ends on March 31, 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/phpBB2/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=2642) 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 Franco Valdez submits a piece called "Fixated on Gushers" to CMC 12, then his filename would be: Franco_Valdez_-_Fixated_on_Gushers_CMC12.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, March 17, 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=8043
VGMix: http://www.vgmix.com/vg25/viewtopic.php?id=5315
Ormgas: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?2.18403
VGMusic: http://www.vgmusic.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7562

Good luck and have fun! :D

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

Abadoss
03-02-2007, 02:31 AM
I need to reserve this reply for information later on...

Sir_NutS
03-02-2007, 08:11 AM
this deserves a big and resounding... maybe.

Interesting idea.

Alex Smith
03-02-2007, 01:35 PM
I'd like to think I can enter, but it will depend on how much time I'll have to work on it before the deadline.

CopiousX
03-03-2007, 02:12 AM
I'm in! This sounds doable and I finally have some time ^_^ Happies

Chickenwarlord
03-03-2007, 02:23 AM
Already have something started. Whether I can make my inspiration meet 2:00 minutes and maintain some good sound is another matter.

The Instrumental Light
03-03-2007, 02:40 AM
id like to, but im not sure if time will permit. i like to take my time on songs, and if this is something has to be done quickly in a race against time, i dont think i could. maybe, im not certain though, so dont post me as doing it, cause im not sure. if not this one, maybe the next one or the one after that one. if i can do it, i will notify you on this thread.

Chavous
03-04-2007, 05:05 PM
...This is going to be an amazing competition. I love the theme, it's perfect for my style...actually I have about 3:30 done already...it might end somewhere between 4 and 5 minutes.

^_^

Abadoss
03-05-2007, 07:17 AM
Wow... I guess that means Chavous is in... :P

Chavous
03-05-2007, 01:31 PM
Haha yea...but it's a little under what I planned. Turns out it sounds better with the ending I put on it at 3:30, so that's the length of it...I just need to flesh it out quite a bit.

Sir_NutS
03-05-2007, 03:24 PM
I already submitted my entry a couple of days ago XD

-RK-
03-05-2007, 11:14 PM
This sounds really cool. If I find time I'll definately give this a go.

prophetik
03-06-2007, 10:44 PM
shit, i totally didn't even know that this was started yet. my fault.

i'm in, and i'm working on a piece currently. don't know if it'll turn out as i've got it envisioned currently, but we'll see.

there's no limit on time, is there? because this has the potential to become a very long project, if i get my groove on and manage to reconstitute my whole soundfont library.

anyone want to give me, say, all their good soundfonts? please?

Abadoss
03-07-2007, 02:18 AM
shit, i totally didn't even know that this was started yet. my fault.

i'm in, and i'm working on a piece currently. don't know if it'll turn out as i've got it envisioned currently, but we'll see.

there's no limit on time, is there? because this has the potential to become a very long project, if i get my groove on and manage to reconstitute my whole soundfont library.

anyone want to give me, say, all their good soundfonts? please?
Uh... I think that you can imagine a situation where too long of a piece would detract from the listening experience (I know so, having written some). So, while it's technically okay to make it incredibly long, I'd advise against it...

This pretty much boils down to a concept that keeps coming up in my composition classes: the length-content ratio. It basically goes like this: If you have enough content for a two minute piece, don't try to stretch it for five or cram it all into thirty seconds. The length of a piece should reflect the amount of content.

prophetik
03-07-2007, 04:20 AM
i wasn't saying i'm going to write a symphony, i meant i might write a piece that was eight minutes long, to fully capture what i need to capture.

of course, i probably won't, but the possibility's there.

Abadoss
03-08-2007, 04:05 AM
Tell you what. You have an hour tops. :P

Chavous
03-09-2007, 08:37 PM
/Submitted yesterday.

Alex Smith
03-09-2007, 11:19 PM
Well, I had started a piece. However, at the moment it's just an ambient accompanyment with no melody as such. Therefore, I won't be submitting anything this round.

I'll vote though. Good luck all. :)

prophetik
03-10-2007, 03:03 AM
Well, I had started a piece. However, at the moment it's just an ambient accompanyment with no melody as such. Therefore, I won't be submitting anything this round.

I'll vote though. Good luck all. :)

you still have a week - keep it up!

Alex Smith
03-10-2007, 09:08 AM
A week left? Really?!

Wow, in that case I'll pick up where I left off. Thanks Prophet!

_Raijin_
03-12-2007, 08:34 AM
nice to see there's actually some life in this project somewhere. scanning the other forums there seems to be little to no interest elsewhere. You should really pimp this competition a bit more and maybe at least set up one central forum rather than having 4+ threads all on different websites. I'm finalizing a piece i started two nights ago, will more than likely enter it.

prophetik
03-12-2007, 01:01 PM
i'm still planning on submitting, but it's going to be a rush job. i'm in the process of hanging and focussing lights right now for our college production, and because of the shitty equipment we're using i'm not going to have time until thursday morning to start writing this, i think.

Abadoss
03-12-2007, 06:26 PM
nice to see there's actually some life in this project somewhere. scanning the other forums there seems to be little to no interest elsewhere. You should really pimp this competition a bit more and maybe at least set up one central forum rather than having 4+ threads all on different websites. I'm finalizing a piece i started two nights ago, will more than likely enter it.

I actually have a central website set up for the current round.

http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC-Current.htm

_Raijin_
03-12-2007, 06:43 PM
I actually have a central website set up for the current round.

http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC-Current.htm

yes, but still no forum :p its just an idea, thats all, could help creating more of a central community rather than having people from all over the place.

_Raijin_
03-13-2007, 11:13 PM
how many entries so far by the way?

Abadoss
03-14-2007, 02:31 AM
Currently, four.

{edit} - Correction: Five. Three from VGMusic and two from OCR.

{edit 2} - Six. I just got another one from VGMusic. They're beating the pants off you guys, as far as number of entries!

Abadoss
03-16-2007, 03:32 AM
Only tonight, Friday, and Saturday left to finish your entries. Try not to put it off.

Flik
03-16-2007, 03:15 PM
I will not be participating.

_Raijin_
03-17-2007, 04:21 AM
Currently, four.

{edit} - Correction: Five. Three from VGMusic and two from OCR.

{edit 2} - Six. I just got another one from VGMusic. They're beating the pants off you guys, as far as number of entries!

well, seeing as I recently got banned from VGMix (woops) and Virt hasnt answered me in days, I'd be happy to enter this one for the OCR side :p

looking forward to how this turns out now. good luck to anyone who entered.

CopiousX
03-17-2007, 08:53 PM
Blarg.. I was hoping for some more input on it by now, but I guess I'll have to make do with what I have. Submiting...

prophetik
03-18-2007, 03:10 AM
shit, my song's not gonna be ready. it's just taking too long on this dinosaur i'm working from. props to you all, i'll be sure to vote. next time (or, rather, as soon as i get my computer).

Abadoss
03-18-2007, 07:46 AM
shit, my song's not gonna be ready. it's just taking too long on this dinosaur i'm working from. props to you all, i'll be sure to vote. next time (or, rather, as soon as i get my computer).

Sorry to hear that. There's always the bonus entry option, if you want to take it.

Submiting...

I haven't received anything from you yet. There's still fifteen minutes left...

Abadoss
03-18-2007, 09:07 AM
Time to vote!

Sir_NutS
03-19-2007, 02:29 PM
quite the turnout eh

Abadoss
03-22-2007, 02:08 AM
The participation has been dramatically increased due to the multi-forum idea.

Abadoss
03-24-2007, 07:08 PM
Only one week left to vote!

Abadoss
03-29-2007, 07:21 AM
Only three days left to vote! Remember to make comments on ALL the entries. It's not required, but I'll definitely ask if you don't.

Abadoss
03-31-2007, 07:50 AM
Only 24 hours left to vote!

Abadoss
04-01-2007, 08:42 AM
The results are in!

Sir_NutS
04-02-2007, 02:38 PM
wow, by such a small margin...

I didn't think I was going to win frankly, lots of good stuff there, I specially liked Chavous' and Kris'.

Anyways, hope to see you all next round.

_Raijin_
04-03-2007, 03:43 AM
Some close voting there. Congrats to SirNutS on first spot. He's been writing great music since before I even got my first mixing program so I'll happily take second place next to him hehe.

Apologies for not getting a chance to vote and write up some reviews, kinda got busy the past few days and ran out of time (read parties,beer + gigs :o ). I'll post up a few quick thoughts on the tracks now as a thank you to all those who took the time to comment on my track and voted for me.

First off, the general mood of almost all of the tracks was, at first listen, very similar(apart from stringfiend and maybe Simon Frisch's), it almost turned me off listening to them. It's amazing how one idea can impose the same kind of idea on a majority whilst it gives a smaller contingent such completely opposing ideas. Musically most of these tracks are brilliant, but from my point of view, as you might have guessed by whatI came up with, they're just not really what I would associate with sunrise, not in my current frame of mind anyhow. I can see the ideas of trying to capture the grandeur and beauty of a sunrise in tracks like Extacide's, Sir NutS', Chief's and Chavous' and this they do well, but in a really over the top hollywood style. It was just a little cliche for my liking.

Moving on though..

Extacide: Really liked this one, I've listened to it a few times now over the last while. The first thing that springs to mind is mv, really reminds me of his style of music (that's a good thing by the way :p). The pulsing strings in the background tend to get a little repetetive further into the track but at 2:17, the shortness of the track saves them from driving the listener insane. Decent percussion sequencing and a very nice piano synth make this overall very aurally pleasing. Very little happening in terms of arrangement, it's like you were afraid to expand much
on the main theme and just decided to solo it out. This could have been fleshed out a good deal more, but stands as a good track for the length that it is. The description however, I found doesn't really tie in much with the music.

Simon Frisch: Very ominous, very dark very...Tim Burton. The instrumentation in this is top-quality, shows good skill at mixing an orchestra. As for the theme though, I don;t really see a sunrise as appearing with slow rays of lights, your description and music convey more of an image of a completely shadowed world under a blanket of black clouds and the rays as you put it, when the string section hit their crescendo, is like the clouds being parted momentarily and these rays of light penetrating the darkness. Without the description you wrote, I wouldn't associate this with sunrise as much as what I just described there. I think this is probably because the music descends into an oppresive, dark tone again after the buildup and the atonality returns towards the end as if the darkness is returning. Still, musically, this is a fine piece. nice work.

Sir NutS: It's been mentioned before, but it's the most notable point made about this piece so far. It doesn't build to anything notable. A musical representation of a battle scene needs to be violent in its nature (unless you're going for the slow, distraught, "what a waste" or "the futility of war" style of depicting a battle scene). By the style of this track though I assume you were going for the former idea and in my opinion failed to pull it off. There's just a lack of real energy, or wistful sadness, for this track to fall into either category for depicting a battle. Musically though, I like this. Great sounding synths, I like the pulsing bass you used. Decent percussion sequencing, although fairly simple. There's enough transitions here to keep the listener interested the whole way through. Overall a very relaxing listen and feels very fleshed out. I like the break in the middle especially. 2:24 is where the aggression I was expecting should have come in and really thrown me flat on my ass..but it just didn't happen. The rest of the track just kind of ambles along after this all the way to its anticlimatic end. Overall, great mixing as always, good ideas, but let down by poor translation into their musical counterparts.

Stringfiend: Class, hehe. I loved this one. Musically bouncy and crazy, going by the description it does exactly what it says on the tin. The mixing however is pretty poor, and no I'm not talking about the lo-fi effect that you're tryig to get, it's the fact that you didn't quite achieve that 50's black n white film effect quite so well. There's too many inconsitencies in the mixing styles that it really threw me off. Everything sounds like it was recorded in different rooms, the reverb is messy, working well on some instruments but muddying up others way too much. Also the levels were irritating at times, sometimes the trombones just being too in-your-face overpowering at times. the kick/tom drum sounds like it's planted right in the middle of the room by themselves and then mixed in afterwards. other times theyre panned off to the left, then sometimes it disappears completely off to the background.
The composition is fun and quirky though, very much captures the style you're after. Good work overall. Just some annoying inconsistencies in the mixing.

Chief: Um...think I'll follow suit and just ignore the GM sounds here. Nice buildup on the intro, the instruments do seem to capture the essence of a big eventful sunrise. Could be imagined at the end of some cheesy Disney movie where all the baddies are gone and the sun is just coming up over a pair of lovers. Hehe, yeh actually, thats what this one makes me think of. Cheesy movies.

Chavous: Slow and kind of boring is my first impression. I like the percussion instruments used though. This kind of reminds me of the Fear Effect soundtrack. Very ominous and remorseful. I reckon this one is the track that's come closest to matching its description. I can very much imagine the procession taking place as the last rites are read, I'm imagining this taking place more on an Indian reservation overlooking a scorched red desert landscape though. for some reason it evokes this harsher image than the cool blues and greens of a cliffside landscape.


Good efforts all round. Looking forward to number 6. I reckon I'll take part again, was a bit of fun and I'll always welcome anything that gets me writing more music.

Kris

prophetik
04-10-2007, 04:38 AM
i was out of town, sorry that i haven't posted anything lately.

when in the world is the next one?

andyjayne
04-10-2007, 10:04 AM
http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8796