The Final Fantasy VI Remix Contest: Results are in, check first post!!!

[Rexy]

I'm done voting too. Definitely some stiff competition all around, but don't let the quantity put you off.

Gestahl Empire was by FAR the most popular source tune covered, but if you want my take on it, only one or two entries were even considered good for my tastes (don't take it personally).

In regards to stiff competition, I feel one should be looking more into the amount of mixes for Blackjack and Phantom Train; the density packed a wallop for me in both, and some of my highest scorers were among those two songs.

Let's see how it goes for the next 2 weeks' voting. Good luck all

[HoboKa]

I'm also surprised that nobody did Locke's theme.

The huge amount of "Gestahl Empire" mixes surprised me too, since it is an odd theme. New Continent being so popular was kind of expected.

Anyway, there are some pretty good ones, but way too many "techno"-ish mixes for my liking though.

I hope there is a chance to give/receive feedback, since it'd be interesting to listen to people's opinions on the remixes.

Yeah I know...I thought that Gestahl emperor theme is more of a wet-dream for ppl who prefer ambient styles - but there was some interesting interpretations of it (and some very stock/cliche ideas too)

I didn't take the techno/electronic route for this project, as I felt that electronic styling doesn't really do this game justice - except for maybe the airship track.

[Brad Stark]

I listened to them all and voted. I would have liked to have done a version of Locke's theme and I was really surprised that no one did. I would have if I had more time.

Some general comments, I liked a few of the remixes. Some needed some work on their mix balances, instrumentation and variety of textures. There were more than "2" good ones in there. Everyone is entitled to their opinion I guess, but it's kind of "interesting" to leave a comment like that only minutes after they were posted up, seems a little disrespectful to the people who worked hard to make their remixes, even if they aren't professionals. I felt like at least one or two of the tracks deserved a "5" and I handed out a few 4's too.

For the weaker ones, I felt that there needed to be improvements in the mixing (balance between instruments/melody, EQ, panning, etc), dynamic variety in the "performance" of the MIDI, variety in the instrumentation, variety in the rhythms and textures, a lot of things could be improved.

[Fictionalhead]

Best of luck to everyone. I've got a full playlist to listen through, but from what little I've heard so far, there's some good stuff in here.

[Fictionalhead]

Also, just an FYI to anyone going through and voting: My girlfriend left the survey open while she listened through all the tracks, and upon attempting to submit, the survey had timed out, and she lost all her scores.

I would say at bare minimum keep them in a separate file, or be sure to do the "resume later" thing at the bottom to keep them saved.

[Mikeaudio]

I just finished voting. There were definitely a few great ones there. I was surpirsed as well that no one picked locke's theme. There were some that needed a bit of work but to all the people that submitted, you gave it your all, be confident. We all start somewhere.

[meccaneer]

I'm curious - though the voting is available publicly, how does the public know about it? Has there been advertisement or email blasts or anything? Or, are the only people that know about it OCR forum-goers and friends of those who submitted? The questionably situation which may arise in this case, since the order is not randomized, is that you can get all your friends to vote 5 on remix X (whatever your remix is).

I'm simply suggesting that if we want it open to the public, let's make it publicly known (unless I missed that post).

[Calum]

I'm curious - though the voting is available publicly, how does the public know about it? Has there been advertisement or email blasts or anything? Or, are the only people that know about it OCR forum-goers and friends of those who submitted? The questionably situation which may arise in this case, since the order is not randomized, is that you can get all your friends to vote 5 on remix X (whatever your remix is).

I'm simply suggesting that if we want it open to the public, let's make it publicly known (unless I missed that post).

i think this survey is pretty rough on anyone who's not really involved. The fact that you have to vote on all the tracks and that zircon has said he would look for those that were 5 and the rest were 1 means that it's pretty off-putting for those who aren't involved. I agree it may be an issue that you could badger your friends to vote yours 5 and others randomly but i hope no one really does that. The rewards are great but it should be more of a learning experience, i believe.

But yeah, i get what you mean - it's not really at all advertised other than in this thread... is the public ready for a 30 track vote for all of them kinda survey? Perhaps it's best to get less voters who give more thought?

[DrumJ8]

i think this survey is pretty rough on anyone who's not really involved. The fact that you have to vote on all the tracks and that zircon has said he would look for those that were 5 and the rest were 1 means that it's pretty off-putting for those who aren't involved. I agree it may be an issue that you could badger your friends to vote yours 5 and others randomly but i hope no one really does that. The rewards are great but it should be more of a learning experience, i believe.

But yeah, i get what you mean - it's not really at all advertised other than in this thread... is the public ready for a 30 track vote for all of them kinda survey? Perhaps it's best to get less voters who give more thought?

The issue I had recently over at Indaba was that basically the popular kid got the most votes, which was unfortunate for me because I have no friends. Or maybe I should consider it a blessing since whoever voted for me actually liked my stuff .. but anyway, these are good points being brought up, I'm just not sure if there's a way around them .. I think the randomization was supposed to address that but it didn't work out like it was supposed to.

[zircon]

Ultimately I wanted to do randomization but couldn't find any service that could do it for <$300, which I'm not in a position to pay out of pocket (already paying for some stuff out of pocket as it is!)

I don't think this needs to be advertised outside of OCR. It was a community contest, and the FF6 album is being made for this website. I don't really want people asking their friends to vote, but I also haven't seen much evidence that people are doing/planning that. For what it's worth we have 36 votes already in about a single day, with another 14 votes in progress. I think we can make it visible enough to hit 70-80 votes without much of a problem which is a pretty good amount.

[Brandon Strader]

Plus the voting goes to, I think you said, June 14th? That's still a LOT of time for new votes! Do you have any plan to end voting if it gets to a point where it goes a few days with no new votes?

[Nonamer]

Just voted. I'm thinking of writing a blog about this contest, reviewing each individual track. I might do that after the contest ends for fairness.

[meccaneer]

Btw, Zircon, if I haven't already said so - thank you for doing this. It was fun participating. Even if I don't rank, I still had fun.

[zircon]

Plus the voting goes to, I think you said, June 14th? That's still a LOT of time for new votes! Do you have any plan to end voting if it gets to a point where it goes a few days with no new votes?

Yes. I would like to see 80 votes total, so if it hits 80 and nothing else is coming in, I'll cut it short.

[jnWake]

You could also wait for the entrants to all cast their vote, as I would expect the entrants to think their votes more than the rest (or you could expect them to make really unfair votes ).

[Sole Signal]

My votes are in. It was easier to vote on these than I had expected. Nice work to everyone involved; I'll be interested to see where all the results stack up. Best of luck to all.

[HoboKa]

Yes. I would like to see 80 votes total, so if it hits 80 and nothing else is coming in, I'll cut it short.

Er, what if it falls horrendously short? I.e. only 30~ odd

[DJ_T-MayN]

Btw, Zircon, if I haven't already said so - thank you for doing this. It was fun participating. Even if I don't rank, I still had fun.

I would also like to thank zircon for this opportunity.

And as I have said before, this was my first time remixing, and I know mine wasn't the best.

Thanks to all who actually voted fairly, and gave everyone a chance. I will [hopefully] be voting this weekend.

[BardicKnowledge]

Yes. I would like to see 80 votes total, so if it hits 80 and nothing else is coming in, I'll cut it short.

Don't cut things off until I get a chance to listen on Tuesday please! (In New York atm for the MaMI 2012 conference).

[Gario]

I don't think there's risk of that happening (I mean, the deadline is two weeks away), but just in case, yeah, I won't be able to vote on the music until sometime next week, so it'd suck if he got enough people for a cutoff before then.

[zircon]

Er, what if it falls horrendously short? I.e. only 30~ odd

We're already at 42 so I'm not too worried.

[HoboKa]

We're already at 42 so I'm not too worried.

Cool sounds good.

[BONKERS]

Voted.

Some were great, others were not. I tended to like the ones that were instantly recognizable. They were more enjoyable for me.

#28 in particular I think was by far my favorite.

[DrumJ8]

Voted.

Some were great, others were not. I tended to like the ones that were instantly recognizable. They were more enjoyable for me.

#28 in particular I think was by far my favorite.

Interesting. I tended to like the ones that had an interesting beginning, kind of like giving me a reason to want to keep listening. I only gave a few 4's and one 5.

[BONKERS]

28# was the only 5 I gave.

While not perfect(Intonation and general tuning errors. Hard to tell if because all live, or if samples made out of tune on purpose to sound realistic), it perfectly envisions the feelings and moods of the original song with modern instrumentation/production, when it started my heart sunk(in a good way). Some could say it's too conservative/a cover, but that doesn't matter to me and I don't care either.

I'd rather it be recognizable immediately and then go off on tangents later if it wants later because it would already have my attention as a fan of the original song that this is "X song here". Rather than waiting to figure out "What the heck song is this?", thus impeding enjoyment for me. (generally I like to have a 30 second to 1 minute rule. If it isn't clearly recognizable within that time frame I may not enjoy it as an arrangement of said tune because of so much time trying to figure it out. However, this doesn't mean the song won't end up being enjoyable on it's own.)

(I know this probably sounds weird, and I am weird, but that's how I am with certain kinds of music ,like any FF beyond III/NES)

Overall everything was good though(with few that went anywhere near bad), I didn't rate anything below a 3 because they all were enjoyable to an extent regardless of any issues and my personal tastes.

Good job everyone.