Topic: Dungeon Music Contests?

[Shiroi Koumori]

Ah I see, people prefer to work in short bursts.
Alright, we should try the first contest for a month then see if people can work within the deadline.

[darkmanx_429]

Depends. You have artists that work in pro bands (like PuD), and total newbies. They impose that contestant play a live instrument to submit a track though (so no direct MIDI rips). They usually get 15 entries with a one-month deadline (even more sometimes -- some free months get around 40 entries!).
The risk with 2 months is that people will be discouraged/not interested by that long deadline (I personnally do*). Let's try with one month for the first time and then we'll see. (BTW, OCR holds WEEKLY compos, and even newcomers enter such compos).

(*If you want my personal opinion, I think a compo shouldn't be too long. If it's too long, people will forget/lose interest, and won't focus on it. Most of the time, people will either rush at the end to complete something, or won't enter. I participated in lots of music contests, and people tend to prefer shorter deadline. That works the same for projects.)

All this and all the rules that Chern suggested.

Let's start suggestions for the first contest now.

[Chernabogue]

Maybe Jorge wants to launch the first theme?

[Donvermicelli]

Just an idea that could perhaps level the playing field a little: each contest provide a small library that can be used for the remixing that way the people that are new to this have a base to work with and are less disadvantaged versus veterans. This also adds the extra twist to see how creative people can get with a limited amount of resources.

[darkmanx_429]

Just an idea that could perhaps level the playing field a little: each contest provide a small library that can be used for the remixing that way the people that are new to this have a base to work with and are less disadvantaged versus veterans. This also adds the extra twist to see how creative people can get with a limited amount of resources.

Maybe, there could always be that library that anyone could just add content to on a separate thread and people could use the stuff in there for any of the music contests?

I don't know music stuff like that or what's involved but I think that saves the mods an extra thing to do each month for each contests if people are already sharing files between the forum?

[Donvermicelli]

Maybe, there could always be that library that anyone could just add content too on a separate thread and people could use the stuff in their for any of the music contests?

I don't know music stuff like that or what's involved but I think that saves the mods an extra thing to do each month for each contests if people are already sharing files between the forum?

That would work as well I guess.

[Chernabogue]

Maybe, there could always be that library that anyone could just add content to on a separate thread and people could use the stuff in there for any of the music contests?

If that's what you're referring to, I know a few free/low cost websites that propose samples, loops, and soundfonts.

[BMC_War Machine]

I agree with Chernabogue on the time, a month should be more than enough time to complete any entries. But for my end id like to see the contests being with non midi based instruments, at least for things other than drums.  I can make some really nice sounding symphony with my plugins and midi, but for a contest I think it should be just physical instruments with again the exception being drums lol.  As for themes I think certain groups would be cool, like as in this month is forest month, next month castle keep month etc to broaden the scope so that not all entries come from the same game. But then again, entries from the same game would be pretty cool actually to compare against the competitors lol.

[Chernabogue]

I agree with Chernabogue on the time, a month should be more than enough time to complete any entries. But for my end id like to see the contests being with non midi based instruments, at least for things other than drums.  I can make some really nice sounding symphony with my plugins and midi, but for a contest I think it should be just physical instruments with again the exception being drums lol.  As for themes I think certain groups would be cool, like as in this month is forest month, next month castle keep month etc to broaden the scope so that not all entries come from the same game. But then again, entries from the same game would be pretty cool actually to compare against the competitors lol.

While I can understand the "live/real instrument" option, I tend to disagree on this point. Restricting rules will prevent some people to enter. (For instance, I moved into my new apartment for my studies, but couldn't bring any of my instruments -- living in a crowded building is bad for metalheads lol). Using MIDI instruments or VSTs will allow people to enter the competition. (Imagine not allowing MS Paint for the sprite contest! xD)

Let's not restrict the rules for the first month(s) and let's see how it goes.

[Donvermicelli]

.  As for themes I think certain groups would be cool, like as in this month is forest month, next month castle keep month etc to broaden the scope so that not all entries come from the same game. But then again, entries from the same game would be pretty cool actually to compare against the competitors lol.

I think it would actually be more fun to have people compete with the same resources and see how creative they can get with that. Like seeing how many diffirent heavy metal version of Invitation of a crazed moon we can come up with. Then again we could make an alternating structure where we do this every other month and the other times it could be a free for all. I think the contest should be as open as possible so that each round has the potential to be totally diffirent. More narrow scoped rounds could serve as great entry points for newcomers on the other hand, gives them less to worry about.

[BMC_War Machine]

Both good points Chernabogue and Donvermicell, just dropping in some input  after thinking about it (i slightly mentioned this in the last post), i agree with you Donvermicelli - having several different version of the same topic could prove pretty cool  OK, so as it is now, ALL instruments of any kind are welcome? let's do it 

[darkmanx_429]

Free-For-All with software and live instruments ensures the most participation.

And yes, that was was a good point made about not allowing ms paint for sprite contest...or imagine me doing the 3-D contest but only allowing Maya as the only modeling tool allowed don't want to alienate anybody.

[BMC_War Machine]

I had another thought lol, maybe make categories for music genre as well per the song choice i e jazz, rock, etc.  That could diversify the entries even further!  Also, maybe randomize the song choices per game as well, like start with Castlevania, next month be Curse of Darkness, following month RoB etc.  That way it ensures that no one is sampling out the OST's for every vania in existence lol.  Another thing to would be to make sure that the track entry is not a remix of that track in another title, like if the first choice would be Vampire Killer, it should be based on the Vampire Killer of that game, not its remix.  For example, if it were Vampire Killer from Castlevania, it should not be the remixed version heard in Rondo of Blood.  Plus it should be encouraged to have the composers put their own twist on it as well - new parts, different harmonies to the main parts, extension of the song etc.

[Dracula9]

...I think you're all forgetting that using a "use THIS MIDI, THIS soundfont, and THIS method" will limit people more than anything else. Different people use different programs, so forcing a new one on contestants for the sake of "fairness" will kill this vein of contests right quick.

[BMC_War Machine]

....unless i misunderstand i thought it was ultimately going to be open game for whatever style anyone wanted to use? I'd say (and this is just for input) that whatever was used could also be added to an entry also.  For example, on my end everything will be live instruments except for the drums and the symphony.  Sure, its midi based, but i have to create those midi's from scratch to work with my program.  I can't just snatch and grab midi files and slap them in there.  I think it would be kind of cool to actually include in the entry what the composer used when creating the tracks.  It may surprise a lot of us to see how many things people use to make these tracks come to life