KingTiger

Not going to post a source breakdown this time, but make sure you listen to the bass, melodies, and the arpeggiator for the source usage.

Not going to post a source breakdown this time, but make sure you listen to the bass, melodies, and the arpeggiator for the source usage.

Next time the Maverick Astley team does a compo, they should find a way to slip in John Cena, seeing as he's the new rick roll.

Next time the Maverick Astley team does a compo, they should find a way to slip in John Cena, seeing as he's the new rick roll.

Next time the Maverick Astley team does a compo, they should find a way to slip in John Cena, seeing as he's the new rick roll.

I always enjoy ToN's tracks a ToN

I always enjoy ToN's tracks a ToN

Woohoo, you're still here!

I was planning to vote yesterday, but I had an allergic reaction to something new and that pretty much ruined my entire day. My apologies to my team for not voting :'(

I like the idea of having a thread for reviews, maybe a separate thread for each round?

I like the idea of having a thread for reviews, maybe a separate thread for each round?

I don't want to get into the weeds here, but my point wasn't that VGMix was intimidating for artists, it's that it was intimidating for reviewers. They had an admirable goal of encouraging people to review remixes by introducing an RPG-like XP system, but people could essentially upvote/downvote reviews which introduced a whole complicated weighting and scoring system that reviewers themselves had to keep in mind. The whole thing was too much work for most people who just wanted to leave some feedback and that's why people just didn't review that much.
 
Anyway the point is that you can't over-complicate these things. Goodness knows that the Gauntlet-style competitions we run here are already kind of complicated. With regards to voting picking a top three is already hard enough; providing 5-point scoring on a variety of categories for each remix is just going to discourage people from even voting at all.
 
I want to avoid using off-site services for these kinds of things right now because I want the competitions to be something that we do here on the forums so that people come to OC ReMix and participate in the community. I also need that verification that people who are voting are part of the community and not just ringers that people have brought in from other communities; ballot stuffing has been an issue in other competitions, which is why the Competitions Code of Conduct exists in the first place. For the application I'm developing, the goal is to have some kind of authentication bridge that will link your OCR account to the app's own user accounts. Still a long ways off.

A few points about what Darke said:
 
As a very active member of VGMix back in the days, I gotta say the problem with the voting in VGMix was that for lesser known or new people, they were less likely to get any ratings or votes than known people because most people were waiting for these known remixers to post something up to upvote it over everything else in a matter of minutes/hours.  Which in turn made new remixers/obscure games get buried minutes after posting.  Moreover, new remixers who posted less-than-great music, were much less likely to get reviews/votes on subsequent postings because people dismissed them as being bad, which didn't take in account that which each piece of music that one person does it's very likely that person will improve.  So the system was heavily weighted towards people who were already good and well known.  I don't think people got intimidated by the scores as everywhere you post music you will probably get feedback which, if you're new, won't be very favorable.
 
Regarding the suggestion about the votes I do agree with Darke that it's needlessly complicated.  What we need is an even easier voting system, something automated, as I'm sure could be something close to what Darke might have in mind.  If we have an automated submission system we might also have an automated voting system, a page with all the remixes for the round and the ability to vote on that same page as you listen.  That would be the easiest approach.

Like Darkesword said, ask for feedback, I know for a fact that there are a lot of helpful people around, I try to give feedback if asked, although I'm not the most knowledgeable person.  Even some of the stuff I've learned over the years has been thanks to the feedback from people in this very competition.  And believe it or not, I've learned quite a few things in this competition we are right now just by talking to the artists about their tracks and mine.

Please keep in mind that right now, the draft, the submissions gathering, the encoding, tagging, and uploading; the voting, vote collection, and tallying; it's all done manually by either you guys or by me. There's very little that's automated about this process for gauntlets, and it's why scoring hasn't gone up yet (I have spreadsheets to help me tally but it's still some manual labor on my part to get everything in there).
 
In my spare time, I'm working on a database-driven web application that will help me manage and automate practically everything having to do with the competitions I personally run on OCR. This is a large-scale, complicated software development project and I'm still in the data design phase of the whole thing. These kinds of ideas can certainly be incorporated into that, but it's a long ways off. I don't anticipate this application being done any time soon.
 
It's also worth noting that the more complicated you make the voting process, the less likely people are to vote at all. VGMix had a lot of these problems with their review system. They attached scores and weights to reviews (through meta-ratings on reviews) which ended up intimidating people from participating, which led to a total crash of the entire system.
 
Building the kind of things you're asking for into the current competition's scoring system is pie-in-the-sky; it sounds great and I understand the intent, but to be honest it's needlessly complicated for the purposes of this competition. If you're interested in detailed feedback about your track, please feel free to ask for specific feedback either here or in the Workshop forum.
 
Nonetheless, I appreciate the comments and aware that feedback can be an issue. Perhaps next Gauntlet we do (rest assured, we will be doing one next year), we can have a one-week break in between blocks where people can be encouraged to review and dissect tracks from the previous three rounds. Maybe setting up a separate review thread per round could also be beneficial next time.
 
On a related note, this December 18th will be 6 year anniversary of the first Grand Robot Master Remix Battle, which is the first of the large scale choose-your-theme competitions that everyone has enjoyed so much over the years. I'm happy to say that I've seen so many awesome artists who've either gotten started or gotten better by competing in these large scale events, many of them honing their skills to the point of going pro and making careers out of music. I'm not pretending to take any credit for any of that, but I will say that I'm proud of everyone that's given the compos a shot and have managed to push their skills higher and higher.

Hey Darke, I have a crazy idea for future competitions like this that might be unfeasible but I wanted to drop it by you anyways. Obviously my entry this week was a joke, but I noticed with the way the voting is set up that there is an opportunity to make this a more rewarding experience for everyone involved.
 
It'd be interesting to see something where people could rate a mix out of 5 based on different categories, like production, arrangement, source usage, mastering, etc. Maybe bring in one of the OC superstars that aren't participating in the competition like BGC, Zircon, Will Roget, yourself etc every now and then to give some external professional insight on the mixes on a round. Either just adding this to their top 3 picks of creating a simple form for people to check box out.

It would allow people to see where their mix falls short and the areas people liked. Right now, and I had this happen with the Wily competition too, but it kinda feels like you submit your track into a blender and its not heard from again unless you happen to get voted for or participate in the listening party. Luckily people volunteer feedback in the thread, but you kinda have to hunt for it.  Its why my team mates dropped after the first one and I think thats why people might struggle to be motivated to keep submitting with the long format nature of this competition.
 
The consistent feedback could help everyone improve on each other and know what areas they should focus on. Under the current voting scheme its extremely unclear what qualities people liked in a track or why they prioritize certain tracks over others, because different people are listening for different things, but the system doesn't really give any insight into what those things are.
 
Overall, introducing a more categorical system for voting I feel would be beneficial to OCR as an organization as well because it can help you guys refine your content creators to publish the highest quality of mixes. There are a lot of really talented folks in here that have areas, that, with proper focus could turn them into truly top tier composers/musicians. I'm no exception. If any of those guys go on to become great film\tv\game composers, you guys can take pride in knowing you helped foster that talent.

Lyrics!
 
 
[Ok, there’s no way out, there’s gotta be a way out!] [Look, here’s something! “Es-cop-ay.” I wonder what that means? It’s funny, it’s spelled just like the word “escape.”]      {chorus/hook} escape route hiding from the great unknown cause I am an actor and life’s a show don’t hate you but when the scene’s unscripted all your good, can you please restrict it? get straight through all I want is the end like being average is the trend create truth it’s easy to fail the test when you are so afraid of success     {verse 1} complete the trial to the very end and you know it’s final, can’t be done again but I know I’ll lose it on the final test I’ll never prove myself on this quest what’s the point of even going through this open door I’ve been appointed to I’ll only fail and fail again hey look, the trail opens up ahead   so now I’ve got something to decide try it, or throw away my life I don’t think I can handle the strife but the other way, well, it cuts like a knife through butter in my imagination guess I really should be patient until my confidence comes around and I really can’t let my family down   I gather my strength and push on through it I hope I make it, I hope I do it but then I trip and stumble and fall *sigh* I knew I couldn’t do it at all you can try your best to encourage but it only serves to discourage I won’t throw myself in the bottomless pit but now you plainly see where we sit   self-defeat is the name of the game cause it’s not so neat to fell ashamed cause there’s always the chance that I could fail so I’d just rather not set sail I’ll push it aside and get on with my days I’ve got too much pride so I’ll just stay the same and you know what’ll happen? Ill just forget and do it all again the next chance I get     {verse 2} don’t know what I mean by “escape route”? well, give me a minute and I’ll show you gotta prepare, make sure I’m ready endless reparations for when I’m unsteady huh? what? I guess I can go now um, but, I really can’t show how great I am if you don’t give me time how spaced I am if you don’t give me mine   think about driving your car in traffic think about how far there is havoc defensive driving 101, now always looking for the way out disaster’s right around the corner I’m passionate as a hoarder of all these moments that could go wrong count em all up, they’d be a googol strong   anxiety runs high in this town you never know when it’ll come around if there’s chance I won’t succeed that’s when it will come and get me I can’t do it, see, I cannot be the man that you really need from me   maybe something will cut through the noise maybe I should go play with my toys what? no, don’t call me a boy now let’s pretend it’s the fall of Troy if I try harder, it might happen sudden clarity, instead of trapped in  a box I built myself, now strapped in safe and secure, try to free me - I’ll zap him     {bridge} if I press on every day then maybe I will find a way and if you think you know then say how to make this thing go away I need to find some clarity but everywhere I look, I see chaos, confusion, and deceit who is there who can help me?   need to find my confidence my faith in God never made sense because everywhere that I went I let others invent me but now I have to find time each day to put my foot down and I’ll say that I will stop being afraid of my mistakes I’m unashamed     [Let’s go!] [Ah!] [Here’s Brucey!]

Here's an instrumental version of my track guys, so you can hear the source usage better: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i99mbyv26g9xqve/kt%20ess-cop-ay%20instrumental%20master.wav?dl=0

Yeah no, those are bumpers, sorry. I'm a massive Sonic fan (classic comics, classic cartoons, and classic games) and it never occurred to me that those could be chili dogs. They logically fit in the environment of the zone as bumpers, especially given the fact that nowhere else in the classic Sonic games is there a reference to chili dogs.

I was thinking more along the lines of chaostisist = Chaotix.
Im not really pro-Sega, per se, but I am pro-Sonic

Source breakdown! (I've had this typed up on my computer waiting for the remixes to be posted )

 

 

I focused heavily on using the chords from the gauntlet source, but I also used other melodic/harmonic elements from it and my Maverick’s theme. I used a key that neither source is in (fm). Here’s a full source breakdown by source section:

 

chord patterns in Sigma Palace (using Darke’s YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3yJ29Uq8q0):

0:12 - 0:25, used in the verses
0:24 - 0:47, used in the chorus/hook
0:47 - 0:58, used in the middle of each verse
 

 

melodic stuff in Sigma Palace (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyIFODbDK5M):

rhythmic strings from 0:10 - 0:12, I used the top notes as the foundation for my baseline in the verses, but I simplified it from two 1/8 notes on each note to a single dotted 1/8 on each note. Also the bass in the bridge, changed to 1/4 notes
french horn from 0:23-0:24, this is the synth at the beginning and middle of each chorus
strings that repeat from 0:24 - 0:47, I used the top notes as the baseline, again using dotted 1/8s instead of the original timing (which is a rest and then three 1/4 notes)
harp from 0:47 - 0:52, should be pretty obvious, it’s the synth that plays at the end of the first 8 bars of each verse
descending string patten from 0:55 - 0:58, the synth that plays at the end of each chorus
 

 

melodic stuff from Crescent Grizzly:

melody from 0:03 - 0:06 & 0:22 - 0:25, the synth bit at the end of the first half of each verse
the resonant-shifting, same note synth from 0:07 - 0:09, the super fast rap before the last chorus - there’s a synth doing something similar under my rap
melody from 0:13 - 0:22, there’s a staccato synth part that occurs throughout each verse that does this; specifically, it’s in the 3rd, 11th, and 27th bars of the 1st verse, and the 3rd and 11th bars of the 2nd verse
melody from 0:26 - 0:32, this is a background synth line in the 2nd & 3rd choruses
the contrapuntal melody from 0:32 - 0:44, this is the synth line in the 2nd verse, the 3rd set of 8 bars (the “different” part of the verse where I start out rapping “anxiety runs high in this town”)
the chordal melody from 0:45 - 0:57, this is actually in the bass under the “different” part of both verses… I cut short the notes that are held longer and doubled the speed of the source

"He added a compressor to his effects chain. What happened next was NutS"

"He added a compressor to his effects chain. What happened next was NutS"

so um
 
I made a silly mistake and made my mix with last week's gauntlet theme instead of the current one   
 
thankfully Blind encouraged me to try to fix it and I was able to swap out the melodies quite easily. 
 
praise God for good teammates  I'll be subbing shortly.

so um
 
I made a silly mistake and made my mix with last week's gauntlet theme instead of the current one   
 
thankfully Blind encouraged me to try to fix it and I was able to swap out the melodies quite easily. 
 
praise God for good teammates  I'll be subbing shortly.

so um
 
I made a silly mistake and made my mix with last week's gauntlet theme instead of the current one   
 
thankfully Blind encouraged me to try to fix it and I was able to swap out the melodies quite easily. 
 
praise God for good teammates  I'll be subbing shortly.