MindWanderer

The full calendar is here. Short answer: There will be 3 rounds of the Dracula bracket, 2 weeks, 2 weeks, and 1 week long.

I have not received it.

Since this is a tough round to call, I'm taking the extra time to write reviews and collect my thoughts. As usual, I may come across as overly critical, but on the whole, this was an exceptional round. Going to be some strong competition in the Dracula bracket! The Witching Hour: Production-wise, OA delivers, as always. The A->B->A/B->B arrangement is pretty typical for these compos, and I could have done with more blending earlier on. The blending itself seemed a little awkward--the elements were interleaved but never seemed to really interact with each other. It's a real shame, too, because I feel like the treatment of the minimalistic Castle Center, a tough source to work with IMO, was exceptional, and I would have loved to have seen it get some more melodic components added to it. I Never Drink, Wine: Very thin soundscape, unfortunately emphasized by direct comparison to OA's mix. The buildup to the opening at 0:32 was weaksauce, and again at 2:31. Not much use of Castle Center that I could hear. Interesting use of clips from Dracula, but, except for the title quote (which had no backing music), they were pretty muddy and I couldn't understand the words. The Fury within the Wicked Heart: Orchestral/rock fusion is a favorite genre of mine, but I don't feel this was the best execution. The chugging overdriven guitar doesn't play well with the orchestra, and there are quite a few places where their notes seem to clash or go off-tempo. The guitar is a little too loud, too. It's a little repetitive in places, e.g. the intro goes on for a little too long IMO. The two themes weren't blended together very well as far as I can hear, it's mostly Heart of Fire -> Wicked Child with some original sections. Maybe some aspect other than the melody is being blended, but I'm not hearing it. This Wicked Heart of Mine: You did a great job here of intermixing the two sources, although it sounds like you found some of the key differences challenging. I actually had to listen to this several times to catch which segments were part of which source--they're interleaved so thoroughly that I kept thinking it was sticking to one source when it was really using both closely together. Interesting decision to really focus on the intro of Wicked Child, at the expense of the body of that song, but I think it worked pretty well. Lyrics get seriously repetitive; I feel this would have benefited greatly from real ones. It feels like the balance is heavy on the high end; if you revisit this (and I hope you do), I'm hoping someone in the Workshop can comment on that more specifically. Don't Cry for Me, Vampire Killer: Not a big fan of most of these melodic variations, personally. Just a matter of taste. I felt like the intro and breakdown had the strongest production quality, and that the melodic sections were pretty thin. Might just be a poor choice of lead. Basic A->breakdown->B arrangement structure, no interplay between the two sources. The "hiccup" at 3:10 seems unintentional, since it happens only once, so it sounds like a skip. Dracula's Madness: Interesting departure from your usual chip-heavy style. Not really my thing, but it's well-executed for what it is, certainly up to your standards if not your style. I just wish you'd managed to get Bloody Tears in there earlier--even incomplete, I might have voted for this if it met the compo's basic concept.

Actually, you got the grammar exactly backwards. Ellipses are used to indicate a pause regardless of sentence structure. Commas are used to separate clauses conveying discrete units of meaning, or for repetition. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/199471/is-using-a-comma-as-a-pause-correct http://fandom-grammar.livejournal.com/86156.html http://fandom-grammar.livejournal.com/28398.html

Yours was correct (though I question the grammar of your title). Most of the people who are getting it wrong are very clearly not paying attention. The only two that fell into the "close, but no cigar" category were one that included their opponent's name, and one that inverted the two source names.

Yeah, I knew yours was last-minute, so I didn't want to call you out specifically... but under any other circumstances, I would have ragged on "VampireK.mp3" pretty hard.

Fixed. By the way, on the whole, you guys are seriously bad at following the file name rules. I've had to fix 3 of the 6 in every round so far. Please double-check them before you send me the link.

Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation 2016 Voting for the Simon Bracket, Round 1 is open until Wednesday, February 17 at 12:00 PM PST. See the competitions calendar for your timezone. You must vote in every pairing for it to go through, so please do so even if you are a participant. Feel free to vote for yourself, or for your opponent if you're feeling generous. Download the remixes! Sources: Entrance, 1797 (Dracula's Castle) Castle Center, 1852 Dungeon, 1691 (Heart of Fire) Crumbling Tower, 1691 (Wicked Child) Wilderness, 1698 (Bloody Tears) Entrance, 1691 (Vampire Killer)

Simon Bracket, Round 1 is up! As for the Soma Bracket, wildfire, Magnetic Ether, and Supercoolmike will be moving on to the next round. As in the Alucard bracket, this will be a 3-way contest: each participant must use all 3 sources, and only the winner will move on (though 2nd place will get bonus points moving into the Dracula bracket). As a reminder, the entry filename should follow the format: Your Name - Remix Name (Your Source; Opponent's Source; and Other Opponent's Source) e.g. MindWanderer - Wallachia Just Keeps On Burning (Warakiya Village, 1476; Burning Town, 1792; and Master's Keep, 1944)

My main complaint was that the robo-voice was extremely shrill. I actually had a hard time appreciating the rest of the remix because the voice was hitting my pain threshold. Personally, I would have loved to have heard this with your natural voice, which I thought would be especially well-suited to this arrangement as well as the theme.

Upload it and send me the link anyway, just in case. I won't download until the deadline, so if you replace the file, I'll get whichever version you uploaded last.

24 hours left for the Simon bracket, and I have 2 entries so far. Hope everyone else is working hard to get theirs in!

Figures, right after I post the new voting thread. Thanks, though. Here's an oddity: I have the ability to not only delete threads I created (makes sense), but to hide them as well. But I can't see hidden threads, even ones I created, even if I go straight to its URL. I can't think of a good reason why it should be set up this way.

I agree, and I would have liked to have a poll that would remain private until the deadline or until manually "unlocked," but these forums don't support that feature. The alternative is to have voting by PM, and that's not only harder for me to manage, but feels slightly shady because the votes never go public. Normally one can simply not reveal the bracket layout until the finals, so folks don't know who their opponents will be, but this time we go into the bracket finals right away.

Naturally, the poll feature of the forums was fixed mere hours after I posted the new round. So, take 2. I think this will be a much closer round, so please be careful with your votes.

Yeah, my mistake. I misplaced Chalis's entry and thought there were only two matchups this round. Fixed. Pay close attention to the sources used before voting. Unless my ears deceive me greatly, I think someone used the wrong source for their entry.

Sorry, yes. It's just a fancy name for the losers' bracket. Anyone who loses a later round will also enter the Dracula Bracket, but will start with some points to represent their previous wins.

So here's the way the Dracula Bracket is going to work. It will be somewhat familiar to anyone who's participated in or followed along with the WCRG. When the votes for all three Round 1 sets have been finalized, I'll post a single source to be used for the round. It will be a non-area theme taken from some Castlevania game. Anyone who chooses to participate will create a remix using their CCoI area theme and the theme of the round. Voters will choose their top 3 entries, ranked. Points will be awarded from the bottom up. Last place will receive 1 point. Each place above that will be worth one additional point. First place will be worth an additional bonus point. Ties will also score from the bottom up, so, for example, if there's a 2-way tie for second place, each will receive points equal to a 3rd-place entry. Collaborations will be allowed. If two or more Dracula Bracket participants want to combine forces, they may do so, using both of their sources as well as the source for the round to create a single remix. However, their entry will be scored as if it were two tied entries. Therefore, if you're being strategic, collaborating is only a good idea if you're confident you can create something together that would rank higher than what either of you could do on your own.

Castlevania: Cacophony of Incarnation 2016 Voting for the Soma Bracket, Round 1 is open until Wednesday, February 10 at 12:00 PM PST. See the competitions calendar for your timezone. The forums have been upgraded and it looks like the voting thing has been fixed. However, since it has become apparent that you must vote in every block for it to go through, please do so even if you are a participant. Feel free to vote for yourself, or for your opponent if you're feeling generous. Download the remixes! Sources: Abandoned Castle, 1479 Forbidden Area, 2035 Underground Caverns, 1691 (Walking on the Edge) Inner Quarters, 2035 Inner Halls, 1476 (Riddle) Dance Hall, 2035

Accidentally posted an incomplete set, due to the fact that both Chalis and War Machine submitted their entries a whole week early and confused me. If you already downloaded it, please delete it and hold on. Edit: Corrected. Download here!

Sorry for the delay. I have all 6 submissions for the Soma bracket and will get them up shortly. Gario, HoboKa, and Aleix Ramon are the winners of the Alucard Bracket, round 1. A great job by all! Round 2 of the Alucard bracket will be a simple 3-way matchup. Each competitor will have to use all three sources: Beginning, Divine Bloodlines, and Gaze up at the Darkness. Only the entry with the most votes of the three will move on, although the second-place entry will get some extra bonus points going into the Dracula Bracket. The entry filename should follow the format: Your Name - Remix Name (Your Source; Opponent's Source; and Other Opponent's Source) e.g. MindWanderer - Wallachia Just Keeps On Burning (Warakiya Village, 1476; Burning Town, 1792; and Master's Keep, 1944) PlanarianHugger, Yami, and theshaggyfreak have fallen into darkness and will be representing the forces of Dracula in a couple of weeks (if they choose). I'll post the Dracula Bracket rules a bit later on.

22 hours left, and I have 2 entries. Interestingly, I have one matchup fully accounted for, one with laments but promises of incoming submissions, and one where I have no clue.