jnWake   Judges ⚖️

In that part you just need to go forward and all bumps will be perfectly directed. You have to do almost nothing! (I didn't know that the first time I played that section and it was so frustrating)

Oh, so voting for X bracket and Zero mixing are simultaneous. I won't be avaible from the 15th to the 18th but I think (hope) I can make the Zero mix anyway.

That means that Zero bracket begins on the 16th?

I think the forum is quite inactive because the project (apparently) had a period of inactivity too (in 2011). I'll post a WIP there...

Problem is, when you say that your music is from a certain genre, you can give wrong ideas. For example, I write music that can be somewhat labeled as Progressive Rock/Metal, but none of my songs have long solo sections or even long instrumental ones. So, if I tell someone that my genre is "progressive rock/metal", I'll give the listener some wrong ideas or expectations that can ruin the experience a bit. More on-topic, I agree with snappleman. Just do what you like.

I have a mixed opinion. If I'm writing a song for a band or something like that, I try to compose something that is actually playable live. It's sad when bands do some things beautifully on the studio and then can't replicate them on the stage. However, if I'm writing a remix or something I don't intend to play live, then I'll use some "tricks" like autotune if needed. Still, autotune sounds a bit weird when done wrong so I wouldn't use it much.

If I sent a submission that hasn't been passed to the panel (since I submitted it on early August), can I reply to my original mail with a "remastered" version that uses better samples? I can't directly update the link since I sent a Soundcloud link and they charge you if you want to update a file...

I'm not sure of how it could be done, but maybe giving some benefits to people that succesfully use the WIP forums could lower the workload for the judges. Just throwing out ideas, but maybe if a song receives a good review by the Workshop mods, the ammount of YES votes to be accepted could be lowered. Stuff like that could work I think.

Whoever got Wheel Gator should be scared of my mighty Strike Chain.

Hell yeah Sponge avatar!

Same with Wire Sponge.

Distant Thunder is a weird pick for a cello theme, considering it has some small "solos" with high pitched instruments... The theme is great though. Anyway, on the first section, the melody is played too low. I don't know if you can actually play it an octave higher on a cello though The second section is probably the one that fits the cello the most. The third section is pretty good. I think the bass could be a little more upbeat. The last section adds interesting stuff with the percussive elements. Nice. The duo at the end sounds a bit off, maybe it'd work better with some harmonies. Source usage is fine in my opinion. I don't really have many complaints about the arrangement, maybe you could add the percussive elements from the end to the first sections, since it feels a bit slow at times. The length is also okay in my opinion. Recording could be a bit cleaner (and by that, I mean less noisy).

Assuming I can pass a round, it'd be cool if I am put in the bracket that doesn't compete on the week from the 10th to the 16th of September, since there's a huge holiday on that week here in Chile and I'll probably be away from home...

DSKOverture has decent string sounds, and some other acceptable sounds. Sadly, it doesn't have many features, so it'll always sound a bit fake. The other DSK VSTs are "ok", with ChoirZ being the only one I would use for a mix. The guitar and bass ones are pretty meh.

I think the huge amount of work needed for this project (writing lyrics, getting a lot of vocalists AND writing music) will hold it back for a while. The start will be (and is being) slow, but I think it'll pick up if you keep going and eventually show some material!

At least I'll get my first choice. Poor Wire Sponge, he only gets cut in half by people, no appreciation for him/her/it/whatever.

Some time ago I expressed interest in the Legend of Hyrule track. Since I'm not sure if the "**interest expressed" mark in the track is mine or somebody's else, I wanted to say that I'm "dropping my interest" for now. I can't come up with an idea that pleases me... However, I DO want to express interest on Nocturne of Shadow. I wrote an arrangement already, just need to sequence it and I'll get in touch with the project coordinators!

Wow the 2012 versions sound terrible. How lazy can they be?

You can try this (free) VST for now: http://www.myvst.com/vst-instruments/ethnic/list-by-popularity/1208-dvs-saxophone-freeware . I haven't tried it, but the video is shows a good sound imo.

This is like "Toto remixes the Zelda Overworld Theme for a Mario Kart game" I love the intro, it's so groovy. I'd make another instrument play the lead, since it gets a bit drowned if played by the piano. Try with a sax or something like that, it'd sound cool. However, the source doesn't convince me in some sections... - 0:37: For some reason, the source feels weird here. It MAY be the G# (if I'm hearing it right) played by the piano. It also may be that I'm used to hear the backing chords decreasing from the original song, so I'm not sure. - 0:55: The chord progression doesn't fit that well with the melody. Other than those two small nitpicks, I love where this is going. Just keep in mind that when drastically changing the backing chords, the melody has to suffer some changes (I noticed some nicely picked changes in some notes by the way).

To make judging faster, the number of NOs and/or YES's needed to pass/reject a mix could be lowered. Doing that could affect the quality of the posted mixes, but I don't think it'd be a HUGE factor. It could be tested...

Maverick Rising also missed most of the boss themes, so there is material for a sequel!

I posted this on the competition topic: "Yo Momma - Nice source! And nicely arranged too. At times I feel the song sounds a bit muddy, maybe because the synths are too similar. Maybe you could have used more varied samples for this." I think the arrangement is fine, I didn't find it boring, but I'd spice it up with different samples. Strings would be very fitting, to make a contrast with all the synths.

I don't think the submission process is causing any delays... Like Mokram mentioned, one of the obvious bottle-necks is the posting. Since djp doesn't have all the time of the world, it's obvious he can't handle to post mixes on a daily basis consistently. I agree with Mokram in that having more people (not many more) posting the mixes on the front page could help. Maybe try to organize it so that a mix gets posted every 2 days. Now, about judging, I've noticed one thing that may slow the process. I opened the first 10 rejected mixes on the judges subforum and ALL of them had at least one vote that said "No (resub)", with most of the mixes receiving only "resubs". Encouraging people to resub is a nice thing, but when you do this, the judging queue doesn't get any shorter than before judging the song (assuming most people actually resub). I haven't read the votes in detail, but maybe some of these "resub" posts are being too picky and could instead be changed to a Yes, which would slow the posting queue, but speed up the judging one. Otherwise, they could just be changed to a straight No. After all, no one says that a No means you can't resubmit.