Music Contest #10 - Poll

[Naze]

Retro
Participants are to create a music piece that sounds retro - as in music from the 20th century.

• Each user can only vote once in the poll.
• You cannot vote for yourself. If a voter has the same IP as the author then the vote will not be counted and it may result in the disqualification of the entry.
• You cannot create multiple accounts to vote for an entry in the poll. If a voter has been found to be using multiple accounts none of the voters votes will count in the final result.
• You cannot bribe users for votes. Contestants who break this rule will be disqualified and given negative reputation.

• First Place: 40 reputation points and your entry on the award icon
• Second Place: 25 reputation points and an award icon
• Third Place: 15 reputation points and an award icon
• Participants: 5 reputation points
• Judges: 5 reputation points

This YouTube video contains all the entries. The start time of each song is in the video description.

User	Entry
AditTechno	Specificity
deepstrasz	Living a Game
Brambleclaw	Retro Like YMO
Its Ryan Boi	Laser Nights
Hakren	Retro Gear

• @enzo2090
• @NightStalker
• @GhostOfPast

Theme	How well does it demonstrate the feeling of the theme	/15
Creativity/Originality	How original is the piece? How creative are you with the theme/instruments/etc.	/10
Production	Basically, how well does it flow? Are accents used to good effect? Do overall levels make sense? etc.	/10
Composition	How well is it composed? Do the key changes make sense?	/15
		/50

Results calculation

• Judgement: 70%
• Poll: 30%

Final Score = (30*Reached_Votes/POSSIBLE_VOTES) + (70*JudgeScore/100)

Contest thread can be found here.

 

[deepstrasz]

What a turn of events: the judges.

 

[AditTechno]

@Its Ryan Boi Uh, you can't vote for yourself...

 

[Its Ryan Boi]

Ah didn't know that(though now I see it's a rule). Just thought we'd all be voting ourselves anyway.

 

[Naze]

@Its Ryan Boi don't worry, just remember this rule in future contests. I added an option to change votes temporarily so you can remove the self vote. Please post here telling me when you did it.

Since last year we're not disqualifying or removing users who self vote, instead we now add a small malus to the final score.

 

[deepstrasz]

Since last year we're not disqualifying or removing users who self vote, instead we now add a small malus to the final score.

It's his first offense.

 

[Its Ryan Boi]

Please post here telling me when you did it.

Did it yesterday morning. I voted, but didn't even scroll down to see that as rule. There was not much thought that went into it pretty much went, "Guess we'd be voting ourselves anyway, and went ahead".

edit: Changed vote. Hope we good now.

 

[Pyrogasm]

When I get stoned and listen to music I like to imagine I'm in a type of "space" or a type of "funk zone" that corresponds with the feel of the song. This contest seems like a good opportunity to explore what these will make me think of, so here you get kind of a live blog as I listen. Is it science? Nope. Is it how I'm gonna determine my vote? Yes.

@AditTechno	I get 'Space Corvette drive through rain'. The sections without the more piercing synth sounds (sawtooths?) really have a floaty, cigarette-lying-lazily-in-hand-out-the-window-of-my-car feel that I like. RetroWave? Maybe it's just the /r/Outrun vibe in a song. I feel pretty 8-bit and a liiiiiitle bit dystopian.
@deepstrasz	SPACE DUNGEON CRAWL. Lol the scoops on your solo synth lines. Suddenly we're taking a break from the dungeon crawl to sit in a secret room off the main pathway where we drink tea and are greeted by an NPC. She informs us of the traps and tricks we'll face in the dungeon (the percussion hits and distorted guitar). I was really hoping for a montage build here so but instead it stays airy and spacey which is pretty cool. I like your synth lead line at the very end and your tasteful stop to it all at the cutoff. Not sure I really described that well, but eh.
@Brambleclaw	An even older dungeon than deepstratsz. Uuuuuuugh that first synth over the low bass is so fat. Great feel! I like how before the drum beat kicks in the secondary synth parts put accents on differnt parts of the beat and kinda fuck with your mind. Turns out the dungeon was a funky dance dungeon after all! I LOVE THE SOUND EFFECT AT 10:08! Could use a little better transition between sections, they kinda just happen (though original synth line is there the whole time). I wish you'd lingered a bit more on some of the grooves that have good build. EFFECT COMES BACK YES! Imo the 16th-note line between the 2nd and 3rd section with the effect is way more animated and interesting than the triplet version of that same line. Suddenly we're in a Space Spa?? When I listened to this I actually thought the next song had started with very similar chords to yours because the quiet section at the end kinda came out of nowhere. It's nice and varied, but nothing immediately connects it to the music that came before? IDK. I didn't dislike this section it just felt disconnected.
@Its Ryan Boi	Now I'm stuck inside a malfunctioning gramophone/jukebox. Now someone activated it? Oh shit it's spooky in here, some nefarious dude is definitely trying to fuck with the gramophone scene. I seriously LOVE how off-putting the top two notes of your ostinato going on at 14:57 sounds. It's eerie in a way that reminds me of Inception? IDK, very cool. The latter parts with the almost raindrop like keyboard patterns could be Space TLC effects (american informative tv channel popular in the 90's/00's), but aside from that it doesn't feel too retro to me. Are the 90's retro yet? Definitely a solid idea for the song and you executed it well, though.
@Hakren	This sounds the most like an actual retro song of the whole bunch! Sounds to me like a soundtrack song to an arcade racing game set in a disco club. I enjoyed the panning on the more fuzzy/trumpet-y synths in the middle-end, that was done well. I actually really appreciate all the different sections/elements of your song and I think you've composed it well, there just isn't uhhhh enough of the song. It being short does totally work if it's like a soundtrack song because that's supposed to be repeated and just kinda be background noise. Kind of hard to compare a 4 minute composition to a 1 minute one, but if this song was a little more fleshed out I think it would have been hands down the best and earned my vote with flying colors. I will, however, vote for you anyway because I feel you just hit the mark with 'retro' in such a unique way compared to everyone else, and I expect most users will not share my views on the 'best'.

Well composed, everyone! I didn't make a single 'WTF' face while listening to all of these, though @Brambleclaw got a thizz face for his nasty bass flow.

 

[Its Ryan Boi]

but aside from that it doesn't feel too retro to me

Yeah I absolutely agree I flopped on the most important part, that being the theme of the contest. I just decided id stop with what I had, and just use it as my final release. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Naze]

@Pyrogasm hah, that was fun to read! Cool how I sometimes got the same feel you described (like in Hakren's retro racing game set in a disco club), and sometimes totally different feel, like in AditTechno's entry - in which I couldn't help but think of some 70's dude playing a synaesthesic guitar aimlessly as the main melody.

It's his first offense.

True that. @Its Ryan Boi , since it's the first time you did it, you won't receive the malus (small subtraction of points) at the final score. This is how we've been doing for some years now.

 

[AditTechno]

Wow, nobody likes me, well how about the judges? I don't want it to be like #5 again...

Jk lol.

 

[Brambleclaw]

Hakren reminds me of the old games :l Just imaging some JRPG to this xD

 

[deepstrasz]

May I throw some of my vote points to the others ?

 

[Hakren]

It's a good thing to come back and hear all the songs again. You get a different perspective of everything and how all are well made.

 

[Naze]

May I throw some of my vote points to the others ?

Well sure! If you feel like it =D

It's a good thing to come back and hear all the songs again. You get a different perspective of everything and how all are well made.

Heh indeed. And thanks for bumping this contest again - for those who are wondering, this haven't been forgotten!

@NightStalker has had some delays but he has started the judging already and he said it shouldn't be long until we can see it with the final results.

 

[deepstrasz]

Well sure! If you feel like it =D

1 to ItsRyanBoi and 1 to AditTechno, thanks.

 

[Naze]

1 to ItsRyanBoi and 1 to AditTechno, thanks.

Oh, well, I can't now that the poll is closed =P I thought you were asking if it was alright to vote for others as a participant - I've seen discussions around this site before. Some people think this practice should be prohibited while others don't.

 

[Its Ryan Boi]

Oh, well, I can't now that the poll is closed =P I thought you were asking if it was alright to vote for others as a participant - I've seen discussions around this site before. Some people think this practice should be prohibited while others don't.

Don't give me bonus points. Keep it the way it is.

 

[AditTechno]

How's this one going?

 

[Naze]

@GhostOfPast is working on judging reviews atm. Sorry for the delay guys!

 

[Its Ryan Boi]

Oh boy would like another music contest. I'm wondering if there is some way I can help to push the judging to go faster. I'll be keen on dropping out just to help with the process. It's weird to see this be on such a stand still. Id like to see it progress a little faster than how it has been.

 

[Naze]

Thanks a lot @Its Ryan Boi ! No need to drop from the contest, however. Results will be out soon (2 weeks max). Most of things are ready already, I just need to be at home on the PC sit down and publish the thread.

 

[Naze]

Here it is! Music Contest #10 - Results