DragonAvenger Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 From the sounds of it, it seems like you should get a judges secretary who could take care of such matters. Having a YES and NO basic email, and have the secretary post the link to the judges decision into the email. And a question, to stay more on topic: Are there remixes that you find to me more impressive/creative than others? Like, changing the melody around is one thing, but do you find time signature changes or genre changes to be a bigger leap, per se. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 15, 2008 Author Share Posted February 15, 2008 Yeah, this is sort of what I was thinking. Maybe one form letter for NO, one for NO (resubmit), one for YES, with maybe some space for comments if we feel the need. (Of course, NO (resubmit) is an individual's decision, not a group decision, so maybe we'd have to be clear about what gets classified as NO (resubmit).) Getting people to resubmit is the most crucial part of this to me. A decent amount of stuff we get is close but doesn't make it. Why not a form letter with a link to the Judges' Decision thread for that mix? That'd be less work than cutting-and-pasting comments into the e-mail. Yeah, I'm thinking more along the lines something that generally explains the next step in the waiting game for YESs, and very basic things about the reasoning for NOs, with links to read re: the standards, and also the ReMixing and Works forums. Then the only thing for the NO ones would be pasting in the Decision link. But there would have to be an general explanation of the judging process in the mail, it could just be "Hey, we finished your decision; the link is here." Differentiating a letter between NOs and NO-resubmits might be a little dicey, but we'll mull it over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zykO Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 How often do you "yes" mixes you dislike and "no" mixes you like? i think this is a pretty good question as it also ties into an earlier question concerning BRAND NAME authors. as you can imagine, it can be a little difficult to entirely ignore who the author is. luckily for me, i hardly ever look at the thread very closely before clicking the link, in turn, completely surprising myself. so unless i already recognize the artist for being unique (i have a good ear for signature sound), i won't let who it is dictate my first impressions. however, that can be a lot more difficult than it seems. i have rejected nearly half of the tracks that i've liked because my role here is dictated by the standards of the site, not by my own standards which, at most times, differ greatly. i'm definitely a sucker for raw, emotive music that is rough around the edges... much like my own. i've had a fair share of my tracks rejected from the site so im very familiar with where the line is drawn =) i've also been able to effectively review and accept tracks that i would never listen to again. i pride myself on enjoying many different flavors of tea but even when it isn't my cup, i still can taste the goodness in it. bias is often where a judge prospect fails miserably. as for brand name authors... well it is hard to reject music by a guy like mazedude or mustin. hell, recently, we rejected JJT's halloween mix... and we know he's one talented sucka. the dilemma in having a bar is that it has to be applied consistently and fairly. i learned this lesson as a parent of a toddler girl. not everything is cut n dry or black n white in judgement and this is why a judge of any capacity is such a unique position. when afforded the position to dictate, one has to dictate with a consistent authority. i'd hate to reject a mazedude track again as he's amazing but if it doesn't cut it, it just don't cut it. How hard is it to phrase exactly what the song does well/poorly? Sometimes, when I'm in the WIP forums, I'll really like something but not be able to deliver anything helpful beyond encouragement. very hard unless i'm completely stoned. when something is pretty good, there is nothing to say short of gushing admit it: it's much easier to rant and rave about something that has something to rant and rave about and verbosity comes natural to negative criticism. i do make a concerted effort to let up off the gas pedal sometimes as i can, inadvertently, start to rip a hole in places where one might not have wanted one. the difficulty, i believe, stems from the desire to criticize in a fashion to inspire or instigate a motion towards refinement of either the specific piece or the artist, in general. seems elementary but it actually takes a considerable amount of manipulation... in other words, not everybody reacts the same to "NO:resubmit" (i know i don't ever resubmit hehe) so sometimes (and the trick is to know instantly when) it is more viable to just trash the thing into oblivion and try to light that fire underneath the artist to return with something considerably better. sometimes something is so awful, you are left with not saying much. i try my very hardest not to judge the ones that need the most criticism because it can be quite difficult to dedicate that sort of effort when faced with a lot of voting. truth is, the easy out that i've seen other judges use in the past and that i've used, myself, is to refer the artist to the WIP forums. plenty of visitors there are more than happy to take their time to break everything down and they are usually full of great ideas. What are some of your pet peeves that submitters do? not name their pieces. not end their pieces. not actually remix the track they claim to have remixed. ======= hey nobody said this shit was easy =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekofrog Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Less of a question, more of a request. Most of you hate me from past history with the site, but don't let that reflect the way you judge my submission. Dicks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FR Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Form Letters: "Delivering NO's via e-mail to disapoint artists FASTER" Kidding aside, How many judges are there and what is the "maxium capapcity" of judges? Are their an odd number of judges to avoid deadlocks? What font color do judges deliver no's in? EDIT: My 100th post was making fun the judges(sorta) LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pezman Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Are you on the panel or aren't you? How often do the judges themselves find time to work on mixes in between Real Life and judging? How inclined would they be to collaborate with n00bs in an attempt to help bring their mixes and skills up to snuff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escariot Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 How often do the judges themselves find time to work on mixes in between Real Life and judging? How inclined would they be to collaborate with n00bs in an attempt to help bring their mixes and skills up to snuff? I'm not a judge, but working with someone of greater skill doesn't make you a better remixer. Practicing, along with some good natural talent will improve your mixing. Sounds like you want to know judges are willing to collab with newbs to give newbs a free ride to the front page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 15, 2008 Author Share Posted February 15, 2008 From the sounds of it, it seems like you should get a judges secretary who could take care of such matters. Having a YES and NO basic email, and have the secretary post the link to the judges decision into the email. Well, I pretty much am the secretary. I don't really see anyone else stepping up to handle the need. I'd love for somebody to, but due to maintaining the inbox, it's basically most convenient in the big picture that I handle it. And a question, to stay more on topic: Are there remixes that you find to me more impressive/creative than others? Like, changing the melody around is one thing, but do you find time signature changes or genre changes to be a bigger leap, per se. Interesting question. In short, yes. People are gonna point at that and be like "YOU SEE, they want people to make the arrangement unrecognizable and shit!" It's not really that cut-and-dry. The more creative/unique/interpretive the arrangement is, while not losing site of the original, the more I probably like it as a judge. I've never looked at one aspect of arrangement like "Oh shit, he went from 4/4 to 13/8"; it doesn't trigger like that. Besides changing things, you have to actually pull off the changes well. But I will admit, I really do like the eclectic ReMixers we have, like Shnabubula, ktriton, and AeroZ. Slap their name on it, and I've gotta hear it. Less of a question, more of a request. Most of you hate me from past history with the site, but don't let that reflect the way you judge my submission.Dicks We've had a lot worse than a n00b like you. Don't worry, you're nothing to me, so my decision wouldn't be affected. Kidding aside, How many judges are there and what is the "maxium capapcity" of judges? Are their an odd number of judges to avoid deadlocks? What font color do judges deliver no's in? Only Shnabubula used font colors regularly when judging. There's no max limit of judges, though I don't see us ever going higher than 12. There's no requirement for an odd number of Js; djp can break a tie (e.g. 6Y/6N) or virtual tie (e.g. 6Y/5N) regardless of the number of judges. How often do the judges themselves find time to work on mixes in between Real Life and judging? How inclined would they be to collaborate with n00bs in an attempt to help bring their mixes and skills up to snuff? Not a musician, but in terms of working with n00bs, lack of time generally means we don't have time to do loads of 1-on-1 help with people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Yeah, of all the judges I'm *probably* the most accessible in terms of the amount of time I spend on IRC and on the forums, but these days it's definitely tough for me to give any one-on-one help aside from possibly listening to your track and pointing you towards resources. These days I just have an insane amount of projects and things I want to do. I feel good if I can do 3-4 mixes a year now, though I'd like to get back into it more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florio Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Do you all have a job that has something to do with mixing or music in general ? Or is music just a hobby for you ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Israfel Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Do you all have a job that has something to do with mixing or music in general ? Or is music just a hobby for you ? Before he fell off the net, the late, great former judge Graylightning seemed to be making progress in that direction. If I remember correctly (and I may not be ), he had started working at a music studio about the time I lost track of him. Can anyone confirm that? It's been awhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILLiterate Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 We've all heard of this "groove bias," my question is... What exactly is this groove and how do I put it into my music for an easy YES? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V___ Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 * Active and constructive involvement in the community. Specifically we look for people that regularly spend time in the Reviews and WIP forums, as well as ReMixing and #ocrwip. aww daym, now we're gonna be flooded by judge wannabes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Before he fell off the net, the late, great former judge Graylightning seemed to be making progress in that direction. If I remember correctly (and I may not be ), he had started working at a music studio about the time I lost track of him.Can anyone confirm that? It's been awhile. yes he was working at a studio as a sort of technicology consultant/tech engineer. then he moved to somewhere in the middle of nowhere becuase of working in Nashville i believe. he really should update everyone someday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Probably my biggest pet peeve is when first time submitters write a fuggin' novel about the remix they threw together in FL in 6 hours. They write 4 paragraphs about playing the game for the first time at age 7. They mention the names of everyone who listened to earlier drafts. They thank God, and their parents. And after all of this they suck profusely. There's nothing that calls down the fire (as far as my votes are concerned) like a longass pretentious submission email. JJT, eat a dick. aww daym, now we're gonna be flooded by judge wannabes... Come on now V, it'll be fun :3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnappleMan Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Larry: How did they let you, a black man, onto the pannel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciel Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 This question may broach some sensitive behind-the-scenes material so I'm not expecting you guys to answer, but I was wondering why certain judges like Shnabubula, Harmony, and Israfel left or were removed from the panel. Being a hardcore theory geek, I always enjoyed reading Shnabubula's write-ups. I always wondered if perhaps he was deemed unsuitable as a judge because his feedback was too technical for most remixers? Harmony and Israfel seemed to provide a good balance between technical and more accessible comments, so they were two of my favorites as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Do you all have a job that has something to do with mixing or music in general ? Or is music just a hobby for you ? Both zircon and pixietricks are students ramping up for music careers, and AFAIK the majority of their income comes from music at this point. Several of us (myself, BGC for example) have day jobs but also have bands/side projects/steady gigs that give us cashflow on the side. So yes and no, I guess. I can't speak for everyone on the panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 * Good musicianship. If you get rejected all the time, how are you going to give useful feedback to other people? The exception to this is people with an excellent musical ear who are not themselves musicians, such as Larry and CHz. I just wanted to point out that I'm technically a musician, since I managed to fit in about six years of piano lessons or so a while back (haven't had any since I started college, though). Learned jack about music theory, and a kitten walking on a keyboard could outcompose me, so– Since you mentioned "write ups", what is your favorite "write up" that you got for a mix that was submitted? I dunno what I'd say my all time favorite sub letter was, but a couple of examples from recently judged mixes stick out: CHIPP Damage's epic story for his epic, epic mix "[thread=13632]The Shining Blue Armor Descends[/thread]," and Written Pages calling out BGC in his intro to his Axelay sub, "[thread=12258]Dancing Colonist[/thread]." Something about quoting "big giant circles" and following it up with an all-caps "OCREMIX" makes me chuckle every time. Do you all have a job that has something to do with mixing or music in general ? Or is music just a hobby for you ? I'm one of the non-mixing judges. Right now I'm a student with a part-time job as a computer lab admin, fixing crap when it breaks and preventing people from breaking things. After I graduate, my career will pretty much be like Office Space. We've all heard of this "groove bias," my question is...What exactly is this groove and how do I put it into my music for an easy YES? Make sure your remix has a healthy concentration of boom. Tiss is optional, though highly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Israfel Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 why certain judges like Shnabubula, Harmony, and Israfel left or were removed from the panel. I won't comment on the other guys, but speaking just for myself: listening to and reviewing mixes is pretty darn time consuming, and if you don't really enjoy doing it, you're going to get burned out. That's all; I just got tired of it. No behind-the-scenes drama or anything--I was never that heavily involved in the off-stage goings on anyway. Aside from Gray, I didn't have much contact with the other judges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subz1987 Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 I've noticed that most mixes get four YES/three NO before getting accepted/rejected. Others don't seem to follow that with a mix having a lot more YES or NO votes before getting accepted or rejected. How do you decide how remixes get accepted or rejected? Do you guys discuss remixes that happen to be on the line between being accepted or rejected in a separate judges forum? Also, can you explain NO OVERRIDE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zykO Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Aside from Gray, I didn't have much contact with the other judges. that's not true, bro! =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyne Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 I'll also answer relationship questions, because some of you guys need a shitload of help. So, there's this person I want to get to know better, and get a feel for what this person is like. Find out what this person likes, more about this person's life history and what not. But, I don't know how to go about it. I was wondering if you could help me sort it out. Cause, ya know, you said you'd help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 Also, can you explain NO OVERRIDE? Correct my if I'm wrong (or tweak this to be more right), but NO OVERRIDE is when a mix makes it to the panel and then is found to have something that goes against submission policies. No one's perfect, so things slip through here and there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmony Posted February 16, 2008 Share Posted February 16, 2008 I was wondering why certain judges like Shnabubula, Harmony, and Israfel left or were removed from the panel. It was nothing more than a time constraint on my part. While judging was an amazingly rewarding experience, I'm also a grad student, and I couldn't dedicate enough time to do both well. So something had to go, and since judging doesn't pay the bills... I always enjoyed reading Shnabubula's write-ups.didn't we all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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