Rexy

Brad, this is NOT as bad as you're making it out to be. It's the same for any contest that has public votes. Let's take the latest MAGFest based Dwelling of Duels for example. They used a slider system, though ideally they used 7 tiers of judgment (Incredible / Good / Above Average / Average / Below Average / Bad / Terrible) to decide on what songs to go for. With the exception of Prince of Darkness's entry that month, the votes were still very compact between the others, with not one of the others also being considered close to 'Incredible' and not a single one being close to 'Bad' either. And even in a contest with as many participants as this, you can still expect the points to be generally tight no matter what. Seriously Brad, you should be glad you placed well, not complaining about how others vote. We all have differing opinions, and that is something you just need to accept.

In this thread... Brandon Strader is a complete and utter DERP. The VSTs are being sent digitally - all that Zirc wanted was my email address. But no big deal if it doesn't quite make it in time - any mixer worth its salt should be able to have a backup plan.

Hey, i can't help it if i thought i'd use those FF6 contest prizes this week, only for them to still not be here with two days left. Plus I may have had this new PC for a week, but I'm so used to the prospect of technical crap stirring up in the last minute. Whatever the outcome, this is going to be wild

I've got most of the writing done. Still waiting on something though (particularly, those FF6 prizes o_O) so made a head start on the mixing as well >_> It'll be good when all the pieces start coming together.

No, if anything my votes were anything OTHER than rash and random. I had set a clear criteria when I went on to cast my votes - arrangement values, production values, and homage to the source. For me, FF6 is the BEST entry in the entire series, so it had to do a lot to win over the homage part. Here's how I labelled my votes: 1 - Fitted none of the criteria 2 - Fitted some of the criteria, with some glaring flaws 3 - Fitted two or three of the criteria, again depending on the track's weakness - overall not bad 4 - Fitted all of the criteria and was an enjoyable listen 5 - Fitted all the criteria and COMPLETELY BLEW MY MIND Of course, people would have different opinions on how they feel about everything, and I stated my opinions on your track earlier Brad, but you just have to accept the loss and use it as motivation to get better. I was just like you once though - I was pissed at the Dwelling of Duels during 2005-2006 for similar reasons on me working hard with what I have but simply not scoring well enough, and feeling that I was simply being buried by more 'conservative arrangements' and weaker produced entries, hence for a long time I had no idea what I had to do to place well enough, and in the times I did they'd see me as 'not being true to myself'. I eventually took a break from competing in the following few years, and now I do compete every now and again, taking into account the general DoD following when participating. A long-winded statement, but the point is, it's not a good idea to complain if it means changing your style into something you're not happy with - instead, use it as a foundation to improve on what you have, and take every piece of valid criticism you can.

The main reason why Concrete Man worked was because of the HUGE Mega Man following here at OCR, especially within the competition sub-forums whose regulars contributed a fair chunk of the material. I'm not saying they'd give the same kind of treatment to Final Fantasy as well, but most likely due to the added complexity of the source material and that usually if anyone does an FF mix around here, it's usually for an over-covered source. Also, I'm pretty sure the spot for Locke will be filled up. I don't think it'll be quite as overlooked as Concrete Man on MM9. And let's not forget one more thing - the Mega Man fanbase in general tends to be a lot less rabid than FF, or so I think

In other words... with the exception of Fictionalhead's tracks, all of them are in alphabetical order for arrangement title. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

I'm not saying that people in general were considered harsh (in fact I was just using it to describe myself), but more like a few of us have had different outlooks on how to go through the votes. This is no different from the Dwelling of Duels and its slider system; some people would consider rating everything above average and going from there to see which songs they thought were better, while others could just put their favorites above the 'average' line and leave everything else with considerably lower marks. I've been around this community for years and even I've had to draw a middle line in regards to what I considered to be a 3 and above (most commonly associated with arrangement and feel if anything else), though all in all we're different people and have had differing standards on what we consider to be great works. Regarding your track Brad, I liked your feel in the intro and string writing, but the more 'heroic' nature when the melody came in, empty spacing later on, and general vanilla sounding melody synths were contributing factors as to why the track didn't score very high with me. Arrangement-wise it wasn't too bad; source is identifiable even if it was manipulated to fit the feel you went for, but even then there wasn't enough going to capture my interest. But still, take it with a grain of salt; people liked your work on Soundcloud, and I hope that over time you'll start to improve as a musician

At my desk at work, eating a chicken noodle salad. Hopefully some of those carbs would stimulate any arrangement ideas when i get home, which the structure has been worked out.

Hahaha... yeah, I see what you mean with my Umaro entry having stylistic similarities to the Return All Robots theme. Good thing you bumped it up, because I didn't state which entries actually tickled my interest during the voting. Aside from yours, XPRTNovice's and Sole Signal's Phantom Train track as I stated earlier, I also got some enjoyment out of: * Anti-Syne's entry for the sheer amount of fun given to a lesser-known source * Brandon's Mog entry for making me laugh with the quirky direction (!!) * Radiowar's Blackjack track (which I apparently mistook for Anti-Syne when I first heard it) * Chernabogue's Gogo track (not Umaro as it was erroneously stated in the ZIP; what happened? ) * Zas's Blackjack entry (again, the Star Trek homages were really cool, just was hoping for more substance if anything) * Callum and Xarnax's Blackjack vocal song (Jesse, I say now's a good time to start investing on a better vocal microphone, because you've got skill and dedication in that field from what I saw of you in the past 6 months ) * Gallen Wolf's Rest in Peace entry (amazes me to see what ANYONE can do with such a short and meandering source, and I believe you nailed the feel right on while still making it personal) * Mikeaudio's Empire track (by far my favorite of my rivals for this source tune; made me think of Dr Manhattan's arrangement style going darker, and fits the impending ominousness of the source tune ) * Gario's New Continent track (shame you didn't finish it properly because you could've easily given me and Brandon a run for our money ) * J Blom's Empire track (I told WillRock through IRC that you would probably out-rank me due to the sheer emotion there; almost reminiscent of the Desian cues from Tales of Symphonia; nice going!). * Fictionalhead's Gogo track (cleaner than Chernabogue's, though not quite as creative, but still pretty neat; I'm still laughing at the fact that both your songs got the same score xD) It was great listening to them back, though all in all a difficult vote. I may have been harsh with my rankings for it, but all in all I definitely got a kick out of the whole procedure, and I hope that some of you guys will be brought onto the project

Mental note - complain about voting during voting, and you'll get a lead. Should probably remember that for when the voting phase starts for round 4.

I don't know, Amphibious is one SLIPPERY lizard, and I know that it's going to be a tough match. But if there's anything I've learnt, it's that I just got to sit back and have as much fun as I can. And that's exactly what I'm going to do in round 4, in spite of the trickiness of Rusty Ruin xD I'll get onto the pancake tasting after Saturday Night SEGA is over. But for now, it's been a good serving in spite of fewer competitors

Oh don't say that; if it's something you really, REALLY like doing, you shouldn't really give up. Maybe take a breather, but not really give it up completely - it's a passion at the end of the day, and it's indeed what you make of it. Heck, you and I both are in similar situations in regards to close family understanding what you're doing. 7 years ago my own mother thought OCR was just giving me too much grief for its own good. Alas, she was the first person who congratulated me when "The Feather's Reflection" passed the judges panel. So if you keep going, perhaps your S.O. will soon see your work in a similar positive light in the near future

So, looks as if the Sonic bracket is LITERALLY stacked with lizards. Those pancakes better watch out for whatever cold blooded antics either of us have in the grand final! Good luck, Amph. Looks as if both of us are going to need it. O_o

Hey, could've been worse - he might've been a no-show like Sir Nuts.

Yeah, but knowing him he might sleep through his alarm. And I've been responsible for many a twitter alarm clock episode before - apparently, he rests his mobile phone on a snare drum, and refuses to move it off even with all the times he gets tweeted while he's sleeping.

Oh come on, everyone has one of those bad days. I even got a second-to-last finish in a busy DoD free month once, in spite of having a load of fun with it xP If it's your first track, then feel good that you managed to come through. We've all been there once, and I'm pretty sure the only way is up from here if you just take all criticisms to heart and use them to grow. And yes, as Gario said, OCR's regular competitions would definitely like to have you on board - that's how artists like DDRKirby honed their skills

Brandon's not in yet? Guess there's only one thing for it - TWITTER WAKE UP CALL TIME!! >_>

You didn't miss it - the ranks are on the front page

Ah, now I see the connection Nice going! According to my votes, I was more in favor of your Phantom Train track, which further echoes the post I stated earlier with there being a LOT of strong competition regarding that particular source, but congratulations on your 3rd place finish. I hope you'll get invited on

I believe that was FM/Zas's track. I remember Sixto liked it for the Star Trek homage, and hearing it back on his Bandcamp account, I got the match. Also, thanks so much for the comments all, and you too for your work Jack and Kirby *high-fives Kirby in return*

Oh it doesn't matter how many VSTs you use or DON'T use. Even a good MIDI card is perfectly acceptable providing you know what you're doing with it - it worked for 2 of my project tracks at least (one on Tales and another on MM9) It's all up to what you use, Syllix. Though, it surprises me that your soundbank is pretty minimalist considering the quality of your material O_o

I'm assuming Kirby's was 29 (very fun track that got a high score from me) and was the one that was posted twice by mistake And XPRTNovice's track was #11. I absolutely LOVED this one - was one of my fave two of the entire competition. Loved it for its Grim Fandango esque feel to it - a very WELL deserved winner in my opinion! I've no idea which track Sole Signal's is. Can't seem to find a site with it on display anywhere. And finally, my Gestahl one is track #9. I'm amazed that all THREE of my entries hit the top 10, even my 11th hour Umaro track; that really caught me by surprise this morning! I hope this kind of helps out Bonkers

Oh come on Brandon, you complained the past two rounds against using rock tunes; now you're complaining about using chip tunes? You are one silly, silly pancake

Not yet, but I bet it's because its minimalism could fit almost anywhere In other news, got a new PC. Got everything re-installed onto it... except Cubase, which was refusing to install. That may be no big deal since I'm now a Reaper user now, but I still have some WIPs in Cubase that I would still like to work with. Does anyone want to offer converting whatever's in them into MIDI data and send them back?