SuperiorX

I think orlogue82 might have just meant that there are a lot of new people voting on the compo this round, not necessarily new to the forums. I checked and there are 2 brand new forum users (as in just registered today or yesterday) and 4 people overall that haven't voted in any previous round. We've also had a few people rejoin us that haven't voted since the beginning. I'm a little surprised because interest in tournaments like this does seem to wain as they go on since fewer people are participating, so it's good to see some renewed interest as the competition nears the finale. I hope we have a strong finish!

Alright, I went ahead and subbed this one! Wish me luck! I got some additional 1-on-1 feedback from a few others, and since I didn't hear anything else here, I figured we were good to go! I do want to share an excerpt from Sir Jordanius' PM to me, as this has to be the best analogy ever: I love this guy Thanks again everyone for your feedback and your time!

YES AND YES DO IT BOTH OF YOU!!!! Even before I read wildfire's reply, I was already thinking that Brandon AND wildfire should do some vocals on the song. Bring your sweet vocal duet UP IN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This song does not fit at all with the rest of the album, but I love it nonetheless The lyrics are super-catchy and quite funny (and witty at times). Nice job!

I don't know how I ever missed this song over the years, but it is pretty freakin' awesome. It has aged quite well apparently. I love the ethnic temple-y vibe combined with the 4-on-the-floor dance beats. Nice!

You might want to wait a little longer (maybe at least a month or so) to kinda let the idea settle in. I know it's exciting and all, but it'll give time for more people to check this thread out for details to see if they're interested. It'll also give you more time to figure out all the rules and guidelines (there are a lot of other topics I've thought of even since I first posted my suggestion below, such as point scoring, picking themes, etc.), not to mention the logistics of hosting a compo. Where will you host the music, how will you setup voting, etc.? There are a lot of details to think about. For example I first started floating around the idea of the Sonic compo back in February and didn't start it until May. Part of that was to avoid conflicts with any of Darke's compos, but also since I wasn't as established in the community as other compo hosts, it helped build hype. It also might help to get a larger roster too. Those people in the first post probably won't all be available at the same time or right away. I know I at least, would probably be interested in this at some point, but not anytime really soon given some other obligations I have. Unless I completely misunderstood your statement and you're just going to create a new thread on July 2nd and not actually START the compo on July 2nd (which is how I interpreted it) In that case, carry on

Hey MindWanderer, I have a few suggestions based off what everyone is saying and based off some of your concerns: In regards to the structure, I can see your point here. The tournaments do garner more interest normally and have more likelihood for quick improvement, especially the team-based compos. I, for example, learned a ton in the WCRG from working with Phonetic Hero and Rozovian. On the other hand, they do take up a lot of time and you might not be able to get that many "stars" to commit to that much time. How about you do some sort of combination of the two formats? I can envision an episodic approach. Imagine it just like a television show talent competition (just like your thread name implies), only instead of a new episode each week, we'd have a new episode each month. So "Episode 1" would start the 1st of one month... the first week you'd announce the theme/genre, then have all the novices and stars announce if they're interested or not and then have people team up (however you want to do that). The next 2 weeks could be spent working on your mix, and then the final week could be spent on public voting. Then the next month start "Episode 2", announce a new theme, anyone who wants to stay in the competition can continue but you could also open it up to new novices and stars at this point. This way, any novices who have the time and want to keep competing can, and we can still see them improve month-to-month just like you would in the tournament competitions. But then also any stars that are super busy can just go month by month that they want to compete. This would also allow new stars that weren't free other months to join at any time. This might actually work out best because we can still watch the novices improve, but then also have them paired up with new stars each and every month. In fact I would enforce that the novice has to be paired up with a different star each episode to keep it fresh. It would be exciting to watch them grow! You could maybe do like 6 episodes like this (so 6 months), then do an "All-Stars" season finale, where the winning duos of the last 6 episodes compete to see would be crowned the Season 1 ultimate winner! This would work unless we had the same novices/stars win multiple months, then we might need to have a star work with a few novices (if the same star won more than once) or whatnot. Then if Season 1 goes great, you could take a few months off, then start Season 2 the following year (or restructure the competition if this format didn't work, etc.). I think this format would still accomplish what you want (getting to see novices improve), but still garner more attention & participation than the PRCs. That might work. I think you need to have some structure, letting people just pick any song they want might make voting tougher because there would be no common theme holding the show together. People might just vote for the more common theme or the theme they like more. I think picking a particular game or composer as a theme for each show would work, or like you said, do something like "water themes" one month, "battle themes" the next month, "end game/credits" music, so on and so forth. You might want to check out Dwelling of Duels for ideas, because they pick similar "themes" to guide their competitions. I would also say just letting people pair up would probably work. Even if people gravitate to people they like one month, you have to switch it up the next, so more people would get to work with different people eventually. hahaha, nah man you're fine Some people just can't take harsh criticism. However, if you want to play that role up, you could be the Simon Cowell of this competition and just be like "What were you thinking? That was by far the worst remix I have ever heard." hahahaha, I'm working on it, I've got a couple things in the judging queue right now, so we'll see I'm glad you think I'm that good though... I might be able to be a "star" for the noobest of noobs that might sign up, but I wouldn't mind being a novice at all, there are a ton of things that a ton of people around here could teach me Also I think you mistakenly put ProtoDome in the novice category... he is most definitely a "star"

Good luck sir! And no one is going to believe you cause you say this every week and then make a song in like a day each time Plus you can't be too burnt out after making these claims: I think the only question left now is which of the two of you will wait to start the latest on your song? Since you both seem to enjoy making them at the last possible moment

oh hey man, I didn't see you had a song up here in the WIP forums. This is my first time hearing it so I'm not familiar with all these old versions of previous panel submissions or whatnot that seem to have happened... I'm also not familiar with the sources at all so can't comment there either... so yeah I guess this post is really kinda pointless. I just wanted to tell you that I'm diggin this, it's one crazy funky arrangement, which I'm a big fan of. There are some really delicious sounds and textures here, and some awesome synth work and effects throughout. It's kinda hard to critique any production aspects because there is a lot going on and I suppose a lot of the critiques could be stylistic choices. You've kept me interested through the whole 6 minutes tho. Hopefully this thing will pass on your 298215152198629 resub!

Thanks Pete, glad you liked it! The 1:10 note sounds pretty good to me, and yeah I think the ending may feel a bit rushed after the trumpet solo because that rhythmic synth was absent during the solo. It's roughly the same section as the beginning just with a different melody line. I tried slowing it down but it sounds pretty awkward then. Hahahaha that is the best mental image ever!!! Anyone else got any feedback?

Yeah this is a pretty cool idea. I like the suggestions Gario and Will made below about making this a monthly or bi-monthly compo, rather than a tiered tournament. Those tournaments do take up a lot of time, so doing something monthly would allow people to come and go as they please. Having a monthly theme or soundtrack to choose from is a good idea too. And I'm somewhere between a noob and a "star", so what team would I be on? Lol.

C'mon guys... this is a Sonic the HEDGEHOG music thread. Every moment we spend not enjoying all of this awesome music and our camaraderie in this friendly remix tournament, this little guy cries inside: Now you don't want to make him cry now do you? How could you make him cry? Look at that face.

Yeah so it was my intention to listen to this to try to give some critical feedback... but yeah I got nothing.... From a production standpoint I think this thing sounds pretty darn good to me. I really enjoy the instrumentation, very cool use of the ethnic/temple-y instruments you're kinda known for and the combination of the lead synths. I really dig the percussion and stutter effects too, great job there. The overall atmosphere & intro/outro parts are great too, it really sets the mood for the piece. Ultimately the arrangement decisions are 100% your choice, but I kinda agree with DaMonz here. That lead synth does stick pretty close to the same melody each time it's reintroduced. At 2:26 (which is the 3rd time that lead synth melody line plays I believe) would be a great opportunity to expand on that melody and explore some different stuff. Some crazy synth solo there would be pretty badass. Then you could have it fade out to the 2:37 section and keep the outro bit the same. I just think that would be a good place to do something a bit more original and add that little extra pizazz to the piece (not to mention it'd make the song a little longer too ) Great great song overall though, regardless if you expand that 2:26 section or not. Nice work Pete!

Oh yeah, that guitar and sexophone combo was absolutely killer. Definitely my kind of song. Nice job!

Ehhh, I'd say anything is possible. Gario's upbeat fast technos very nearly got beat by Syllix's not fast not upbeat not technos this past week. Plus Brandon, you could go all "Sweet Wet Nectar" on us and beat Gario at his own game

I just want to give some MAD PROPS to both wildfire and Syllix! You two both did a great job in the compo, especially in this last round. Wildfire you took out Mokram, halc (!!) and came within a vote of beating Brandon... and Syllix you have to be the biggest "surprise" for me in the compo so far. You were all like: in the beginning of the compo and then you went on to defeat Sir Jordanius, Chernabogue, and then came seriously close to beating Gario. Great job man! I'm looking forward to hearing more from you. Just in general, I've been so pleased with this tournament. Everyone has done such a great job and has been so excited & involved. It's been a blast to watch how the competition has unfolded. Thanks so much everybody!

Sonic Bracket Round 4 songs are up! First post is updated now too! I like how in these compos, how so much initial excitement turns into 'oh no I have to make another remix' towards the end, hahaha

Good thing you voted KingTiger, I didn't want to create a tie with my votes. I've been worried about that all morning, hah. Super close match-ups, great job everyone! Robotnik Round 3 Results: Brandon Strader: 18, wildfire: 17 Gario: 19, Syllix: 16 So the Robotnik Finals are: Brandon Strader vs. Gario! Good luck!

Yeah his votes will count. As long as people vote in each matchup for that particular Bracket Round is all that matters. I've gotten both Sonic Bracket Finals songs now! They'll be up right at noon! Now we await the stunning conclusion of the Robotnik bracket votes! EDIT: Only a half an hour left in voting! We have some extremely close matchups, so if you haven't voted yet, THEN GO VOTE NOW!!!!!!!!!

OK guys, I got an update for you: Pyroclastic Tides Revised The biggest changes is with the middle section, where I trimmed things up a bit per Gario's suggestion. Based off the original timestamps, I cut out the original 1:44 - 1:53 and the 2:21 - 2:29 section. See the updated source breakdown in the first post. I added some additional right-hand piano embellishment parts at 1:53 - 2:02 (the old 2:12 - 2:20 part) and now the Spring Yard cameo part leads right into the trumpet solo (I think that area flows very well). The trumpet lead in notes also now only take up 1 measure instead of 2. I gotta say, at first I didn't want to cut these parts out, but after I did so (and heard it a few times) I agree that the mid-section flows much better now. For production, I added some more reverb on the piano throughout the song, but particularly in the mid-section like Amphibious pointed out. I think it has a much warmer sound now and isn't mixed so close to the front in that section, it fits in with everything else a lot better now. I also adjusted the synth in the 1:14 - 1:52 section, I lowered some of the attack velocities so now it doesn't sound as shrill as it did before. I also added the break/chord hold, reverse cymbal lead in on the last high note of C7's trumpet solo like Sir Jordanius' suggested below. It's subtle, but a nice touch. I think that's about it. I think this one is about ready to sub. Anyone else notice any other production flaws I should touch-up before? Thanks so much!!!

Well they'll be released in about 16 hours. Not sure if that is today or tomorrow for you folks, but it's tomorrow for me So Happy 21st Birthday tomorrow Sonic! You can legally drink away the sorrows of your declining career tomorrow!

Wow both matchups are super close right now! This should setup for an epic voting finish tonight/tomorrow morning!

I have nothing constructive to add other than what I already wrote over in the SZRC thread. I just want to say that I love this sexy piece of music.