:arrow: Anybody interested in a SOFT online competition?

[mingguan]

During Voting Period,
- Voters can vote & comment each song individually. However, all vote & comment only viewable AFTER Voting period closed...else will influence other voters.
- Vote result can only shown AFTER voting period. Voter only vote without knowing current poll trend.... else some voters may just follow crowds.

Mr James, is it possible?

 

[Cheez]

I agree that it's best if votes are kept secret until the end. However, if we disallow viewing of comments, it will quench the fire of the competition and loses some fun of it. I agree it may bias the results, but clicking on a empty page for 1 week (or however long the voting remains open) is quite boring. Maybe, the comments page will appear only after the person has placed his votes.

This is getting too complicated. James must be having a headache now...

 

[mingguan]

... 1. Originality 2. Overall arrangement 3. Skills...

Hm...
like that even if I like one particular song very much,
but I can't vote it due to lack of originality, poor arrangement & lousy playing skill?

 

[Cheez]

Only a guideline - which is used as the criteria in most competitions. In the end, I think it will depend on the "X" factor - ie what you said - "I voted for it because I liked it"!

 

[Cheez]

But, it's hard to imagine anyone liking a song that lacked originality, has poor arrangement, and is played lousily!!!

 

[teraslasch]

lol.. i think james scared liao.. staying away from the thread :lol: .. don't make things so complicated for him lar lol.. just vote and comment and view.. ur desicion should not be influenced by other ppl

 

[mingguan]

sigh...
then I can't enjoy both the fun of Participate & voting...

 

[ChanMin]

i think its time to release the melody track!!!!! so we can get started!!!

 

[soft]

you all wait a while ok. i am in the mid of a project. will post it up by this weekend. :wink:

in the meantime, post more suggestions! ha..ha.. then i copy and paste to make it the rules & regulations.

 

[Cheez]

No need to hurry James! Keep the suspense going - we'll just add fuel to the fire to get people excited...hopefully!

Anyway, my PC is still down. Still waiting for a part to arrive from Australia!!! Until then, no music for me.

 

[mingguan]

...No need to hurry...

Ya lor... Mr James also need time to come out nice+unique melody line....

 

[Cheez]

Nice + unique melody? No need lah! It's about how we can be creative! So James can just use a PC to generate some random numbers and translate them into random notes with random duration + random rests in between! :lol:

 

[bluepowder]

hehe ....was it just me or was the thread blocking in between for a while...as for the competition....I guess maybe we could put up a timeline for the rules....

1.someone puts up a melody line,whether unique or not need not be important because sometimes it would be nice to see if given an existing melody like for the love of god,what would each player do with it??how different would he follow it from the original..(ofcourse the guy who gives the melody would not be participating in the competition)--------------------------------->>
2.each melody line for a new thread...stating the name of the "melody maker" and the composer of the original melody,if the melody is already existing(ie.in the above case steve vai-hope everyone knows him)------------------>>
3.the melody is posted up as an MP3(do u guys think a tab and score is required??i mean unless the melody is really really fast it shouldnt be a problem right?we shouldnt be making really fast melodies in the first place)-------------------------------------------------------------------->>
4.All participants then post saying they want to participate-------------------------------->>
5.Keep a maximum number of allowed participants...8 comes to mind(maybe first come first serve basis,im sure the rest can participate in another competition or maybe start a parallel competition on the same melody...just to make it easier to judge)--------------------------------->>
6.the date and time for submission is set(i guess 2 weeks from the day of the post)-------------->>
7.the posting can then start,whoever posts late gets points deducted---------------->>
8.judging begins,this is al left to james ofcourse....

what say guys,do these rules suffice???If anyone got any more rules to streamlien the process...please add them...maybe in the end we can come up with a good system

 

[mingguan]

My opinion on bluepowder's quote...

>> 1.Agree.
>> 2.Agree.
>> 3.I think MIDI may serve the purpose liao. For Tab & Score, it may be required to be fair to those don't have perfect hearing. (although MIDI can be transcript to notation file)
>> 4.Agree.
>> 5.Shouldn't set any limit for number of allowed participants. More even better... And, should be only one competition at a time,else will diverse the softie's force.
>> 6.at least 2 weeks required as some may need recording.
>> 7.All song submission are to directly sent to James. there shouldn't be any individual posting of songs on the thread.
>> 8. I though judging purely based on public voting?

 

[bluepowder]

alright i guess thats all ok...but i would prefer to record my melodies on guitar or maybe through fruity loops..am not familian with MIDI...as for the number of participants....i just wanted to make it lower to maybe make it easier for judgin......because if we got 20 songs to choose from its more difficult....its like saying choose the top 3 songs of all tiem.....makes u go crazy hehe...

 

[mingguan]

Sorry bluepowder, I missundertood your note 3. I thought you means initial melody line.
What I meant is... the initial melody line posted (by the thread starter) are in MIDI form But for the songs submitted by participants are in MP3 (at least 128kbps I think) form.
Sorry for confussions...

BTW,
More people More fun!!! :wink:

Can you imagine 20 songs start with the same melody line?
Hm... It will be very very interesting!!!

 

[bluepowder]

haha...okok no prob i get it now....hehe but even the origianl melody right...suppose i wanna decide the melody sometime ..then can i stil have the option of recording on guitar...or HAVE to be MIDI??....

I love the idea of 20 people playing their own versions of a melody...kinda reminds me of vinnie moores version of 'while my guitar gently weeps'...that was awesomeeeeeeeeee...........hehe but i was jsut thinking of it from the point of view of judging....cos its easier to decide winner from 5 ppl then 25......by the time reach number 20....number one melody forgotten oredy what....
so i was thinkign..maybe have this kind of thing where say...25 ppl participate right.....group into 5 groups of five.....and then decide winner from each group and then compare the winner of each group.....and decide final winner...just to make it easy for judging ..nothing else

 

[mingguan]

...suppose i wanna decide the melody sometime ..then can i stil have the option of recording on guitar...or HAVE to be MIDI??....

i think MP3 or WMA shouldn't be any problem...

so i was thinkign..maybe have this kind of thing where say...25 ppl participate right.....group into 5 groups of five.....and then decide winner from each group and then compare the winner of each group.....and decide final winner...just to make it easy for judging ..nothing else

In this case, you still need to listen 25 songs what... make no difference.

 

[bluepowder]

yah lah...but atleast got 5 winners first right..and then one final winner..(like semi finals and then finals)..cos if u gimme 25 new songs...andtell me find the best one of the lot...i am gonna take one month...hehe need one whole day to appreciate a song fully.....hehe....

 

[Cheez]

I think the main melody should be original - for copyright reasons. If we ever come up with a CD in a year's time, anything unoriginal goes to waste. It's not difficult to come up with an original melody line. No point seeing how well we can re-arrange an existing piece of music - OM of FULL of it! More interesting to see how we develop something from scratch.

Furthermore, it's actually easier to be original if we are given an original melody line. If we are given a known song, we will inevitably be influenced by that song (how the actualy melody goes, how the chord progresses, how the soloist improvise etc). It will also influence the voters - people may vote somebody down just because the chord progression and arrangement is drastically different (for example) from how Steve Vai does it - because "it just sounds wrong!"

So I'm for original melody line.

Bluepowder, you can and should record your guitar through whatever means you're used to. Midi is not for submission - it is only for James to post it. Scores and tabs are absolutely necessary. Just to make sure we're all on the right page - the score/tab/midi file is purely for reference as to what the melody line is. We are not supposed to record OVER that midi file - we are to record our own.

And since voting is public, I agree that as many submissions as possible is good. I don't think we'll have 25 entries. If we get 10 entries, it's already a good response (for the initial stage). And if each song is limited to 3 minutes, it takes about 30 minutes to listen to all of them. And no need for semifinals etc. This is a small competition - just trying out first. If response is really good (ie lots of voters, lots of entries), we can do something bigger next time with proper selected judges. Let's start small and see how it goes.

Also, nowadays with all kinds of free encoders out there, I think we should all just post in mp3 and not wma - to make life easier for James. Otherwise he will have to re-encode it. I'm not sure if Mac users need an extra wma codec to listen on their iTunes, or if the codec is available for them. Mp3 is more universal.