Abadoss

Sorry for the delay. I've been waiting on my samples to get here...

Wow... I guess that means Chavous is in...

I need to reserve this reply for information later on...

CMC: Conceptual Music Competition This competition is based on the rules of the classic TOMC (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, VGMix, Ormgas, and VGMusic. 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 Audio results There are 7 entries for this round... Sir_NutS - "Bloody Sunrise" "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" "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" "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" "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" "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" "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" "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 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. 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 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 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! Previous CMCs: http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC.htm

Prophet's given me his idea for the theme. What I'm waiting on is getting the list of forums finalized. I'd like to add a few more... as well as let go of two of them.

You're actually very right. I miscounted. I have now updated it to match. The results are still the same, but at least it's accurate now.

The results are in!

I had a pretty long day yesterday, so I went to bed.

All votes are due by tomorrow!

I just bought Finale 2007 ($350 for the academic version), so I'll have that LeChuck up soon.

Once all the votes are in (the deadline being next Saturday at 11:59 PM - PST, GMT- and I record the results. After that, it will depend on how quickly the winner can come up with a new theme idea.

If people can start scouting out some potential places, that would be great.

I think that for the next round, I'll try adding a few new forums.

Okay. All taken care of. Also, if anyone is wondering why a few things disappeared off the first post... you can thank a 10000 character limit for that.

All entries are in and it's time to vote! (Yee-haw!)

Cool. We now have four entries so far.

Yup. Do what you think best represents how you interpret the theme.

Alrighty! We now have our first entry! Congrats Another Soundscape!

A lot of the problem is that people aren't yet used to going into sub-forums and looking around (particularly those that might potentially be participants). I think if we (I say "we" because this isn't something I can feasibly do on my own) promoting this thing to other users on the forum, or just friends in general, we'll have some better turn out. This competition will really thrive once it stops being me doing most of the work, as far as getting people interested. Hopefully, we'll see more of that as things go along.

I must say that I rather enjoyed this. However, I do agree with djp about moving the vocal part sooner. Also, concerning the oboe/english horn (and this comes from knowing a semi-professional oboist), a natural oboe sound should pretty much cut through any other sound. They don't really have a subdued or tentative sound. They should be clear and resounding. Anyway, nice voice. I'd certainly like to hear more of what you can do in future remixes.

CMC: Conceptual Music Competition This competition is based on the rules of the classic TOMC (Thematic Original Music Competition). 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 "The Desert" and the winner, Gabe, submitted a piece that knocked the socks off of everyone, so he won. Gabe then gets to decide the theme for CMC 11. Results!: Text results and critiques Audio results CMC 4: The Beginning Long before all that we know came to be, there was the source... the beginning... There are 7 entries for this round... Another Soundscape - "The Journey Begins" "You never know what's going to happen in the beginning. Maybe you're sent into a world you've never heard of. Maybe they throw you out on the battlefield. Maybe you go into space. Maybe you'll just live a normal life. Although you can never know, there is something special about the beginning. The excitement. The anxiety. The uncertainty. The question about what will come next? In this piece I tried to capture that feeling." David L. Puga - "The Great War" "This song is pretty much an intro cinematic track for an adventure game. I was shooting for a serene "long, long ago" intro, then setting in to a legendary war part. I kept the melody throughout the track, as I'm partial to the old school, melody driven vg tracks. To sum it up, it starts with a serene foreword, into an epic battle retelling, then drops back into a layered variation of the intro." Alex Smith - "Time is Born" "... strange, unknown sounds colour the scene. Suddenly the darkness is lifted somewhat: new, bright sounds can be heard in the distance, amidst a slightly eerie combination of rain and a low, indistinct rumble. After a while a stronger sense of rhythm emerges and the clicking, steady beat of time enters the world. A climactic section ensues. Here the dark tone suggested at the start of the piece returns and the two melodic themes are brought together. The piece ends on an ominous dissonance and time is born. Throughout the piece, ideas are brought in and out – creating a sense of restlessness and mysteriousness. " The Prophet of Mephisto - "genesis" "The theme of the competition was 'The Beginning'. I started with a theme that I felt really fit the idea of beginnings (which appears about 60% of the way through the piece), and went from there. I wanted the piece to start out with a mood, more than anything, that was as much of a feeling as anything else. The beginnings of things often are not comfortable or perfect, and this is reflected by my heavy use of the d minor sus2 chord. As the song progresses forward into the main theme, you hear the different aspects of the music starting to take form and come together into a coherent whole. The vocal parts, echoing the phrase 'Who Am I?', represent the questioning that we as humans often have as we move towards what we were meant to be. The song ends with the same feel that it started. This is because even after we come to that point of understanding, we still aren't always as sure about that knowledge as we would like to be. Enjoy!" avaris - "Alpha and Omega" "For me, the beginning represents the unknown. No one knows what the future holds in the beginning. There is a certain feel of mysticism involved. Like the beginning, the end also represents the great unknown. Hence the name for my song, ‘Alpha and Omega,’ the beginning and the end." Flik - "Space Disco" "You trudge through the dark halls of a failed space station...its remains drifting through space for decades. Everyone thought this was the end for the multi-trillion dollar project, but suddenly you stumble into a fully lit up recreational room. Colorful lights moving all over the place, and a distant beat begins to grow louder. Perhaps this is only the beginning. The beginning of something excellent. Robots inevidably come out of the shadows and begin to line up. Where did they come from? Are they hostile? Wha---what are they doing? Oh my god, could it be....SPACE DISCO?!" Melin - "Void" "I wanted to create something mysterious, and lo-fi. I had a hard time with the piano, since I wanted it to sound very lo-fi but still beautiful. The piece is filled with a lot of atmospheric sounds, and is really showing my interpretation of the theme "the beginning". The song was supposed to have vocals added, but they weren't done in time, but I think it works well without them." 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 or via e-mail. 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 February 17, 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 e-mailed or PMed to Abadoss 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 forum. Important: Each file must be labelled accordingly: Composer_Name_-_Composition_Title_CMC#.mp3 (For example, if Reginald Nunez submits a piece called "Walking Through Candycoated Forests" to CMC 14, then his filename would be: Reginald_Nunez_-_Walking_Through_Candycoated_Forests_CMC14.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, February 3, 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=6972 VGMix: http://www.vgmix.com/vg25/viewtopic.php?id=4699 Newgrounds: http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=642288 ThaSauce: http://forums.thasauce.net/viewtopic.php?t=414 Ormgas: http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?2.18061 VGMusic: http://www.vgmusic.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7102 Good luck and have fun! Previous CMCs: http://www.warnerpacific.edu/personal/kkeyn/CMC.htm

Just to let you all know, I've been using this week to prepare for the next round. Mainly trying to figure out how to coordinate everything on all six boards. You can expect to see it posted either this weekend or sometime next week. Hold tight while I figure out everything.

The results are posted! Also I want to hear what you guys think of the new idea before it's posted. {edit} - It's interesting that the day I post the results is the same day that it goes freakishly snowy here in Portland... go figure... (I'll try to get pictures up) {edit 2} -

Oh, how cute. We have our own sub-forum now...

I haven't yet had a chance to get any recording done. I could just post the text results and not worry about the audio ones...